Monitoring Health Services among Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

The displacement caused by the fighting and violence in Iraq has had a serious impact on the lives of all Iraqis—those who fled and those who stayed. Iraqi refugees, internally displaced persons and non-displaced Iraqis now face a lack of access to health care in their communities—both inside and outside of Iraq. The main cause of this is the emigration of Iraqi doctors to other countries because of the conflict.

On December 15, the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement hosted a discussion with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health presented new field research on the state of health in Iraq. Topics discussed included the state of health among Iraqi refugees in both Jordan and Syria, as well as the impact of the Iraqi conflict on the departure of doctors from Iraqi medical institutions. Agron Ferati from the International Medical Corps provided comments. Senior Fellow Elizabeth Ferris, co-director of Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion.

After the presentations, panelists took audience questions.