Iraqi Refugees 'Forgotten People', says World Vision President

The president of the World Vision has warned that Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria are "forgotten people."

"We have great concern for the Iraqi refugees that are in Jordan. We're working there. We're concerned about the refugees in Syria. These are forgotten people," Dean Hirsch, World Vision's international president, told AFP.

About four million of Iraq's 26 million people have fled the country, according to the United Nations, including those who left before the 2003 US-led invasion and warfare that followed.

An estimated 1.4 million of those went to Syria and 750,000 to Jordan.

"The US Government does not want to recognise them. The European Union wants to keep quiet on it," and the refugees are also a sensitive matter for the Jordanians, Hirsch said on the sidelines of a meeting of World Vision's top governing body.

Hirsch said World Vision and other international relief agencies present "the only hope" for the refugees who lack proper shelter, water and food.

"It's a very tragic story... and it is wrong," he said.

World Vision has been caring for thousands of Iraqi refugees at one camp in Jordan.

"We are also talking to religious leaders in Syria as to how the different faith-based organisations there can respond," Hirsch said.

World Vision operates in 97 countries around the world.