2 min readAug 29, 2007 12:00 AM IST
First published on: Aug 29, 2007 at 02:39 PM IST
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has visited Iraq to meet with refugees and US troops in the country, the UN refugee agency said.
Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, made the visit during a two-day trip to the region, the agency said in a statement.
It said Jolie met with displaced Iraqis in neighboring Syria on Monday before crossing into Iraq for a few hours “to see first-hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the ongoing conflict.”
“I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to this humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners,” Jolie was quoted as saying by the Geneva-based agency.
UNHCR estimates that more than 4.2 million Iraqis have left their homes, most of them since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Of these, about two million have fled to neighboring countries including Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
Thousands of Iraqis continue to stream into Syria every day, placing a heavy strain on the country’s housing, health care and education sectors, according to UNHCR.
Last month, the agency launched an appealed together with UNICEF for almost USD130 million to help provide an education to displaced Iraqi children across the Middle East. The US announced that it would contribute USD30 million to the appeal.
Jolie, 32, traveled to the al-Waleed refugee camp on the Iraqi side of the border and spoke to some of the 1,200 Iraqis living there before visiting a contingent of US troops in the area, UNCHR said.
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