The Italian embassy in Iraq on Tuesday said seven million Euro were allocated to support the Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries.
"The Italian embassy in Iraq devoted the sum of 7.1 million Euro for supporting the Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries. Italy had earmarked the sum of 3.65 million Euro during 2007 and 2008," according to a release by the embassy on Tuesday as received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, a large number of them Christians, have emigrated to Sweden and other Western and Arab countries since the 1990s. The number of emigrants jumped, according to international organizations, to more than 3 million after the Iraqi regime was toppled in 2003 and the following sectarian violence.
(Voices of Iraq)