The Iraqi war: How Christians were run out of Iraq

One of the many humanitarian byproducts of the Iraqi War is the number of Christians that have been driven out of the country, and are now refugees elsewhere.

1.4 million Christians were recorded in Iraq’s last full national census (1987).

700,000 have fled since then, mostly to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey as a result of the War.

30% of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon today are Christian, a disproportional amount since Christians only made up 3 per cent of the Iraqi population.

The above numbers are of course estimates, but likely on the low side. The number of Iraqis driven from their homes by war and sectarian violence could be far larger than official estimates of the country's deepening humanitarian crisis, many experts say.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the Iraqi Red Crescent estimate that more than 4.2 million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes within the country or have crossed Iraq's borders to become refugees.

[Sources for above statistics: UNHCR, Iraqi Government]