More than 80 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since 2003

Jardine Malado Friday, October 21, 2016

Displaced Christians wait for humanitarian aid at a church in Hamdaniya town, east of Mosul, northwest of Baghdad, July 20, 2014. | REUTERS/Stringer

Christian advocacy group Open Doors U.K. reported that more than 80 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since the war broke out in 2003. In Syria, about half of the Christians have left the country since 2010.

According to the New York Times, there were as many as 1.5 million Christians in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein. The numbers dwindled to less than 500,000 in 2015.

Open Doors is urging the British government to provide better living conditions for the Christians that chose to remain. Lisa Pearce, CEO of Open Doors U.K., tells Premier that those who stay know about the risks but they choose to remain to "serve those around them."

According to Pearce, many Christians choose not to go to organized refugee camps for fear of persecution. The advocacy group is encouraging the government to use the networks of Christian and Muslim faith leaders to distribute aid alongside the usual channels such as NGOs and the U.N. to reach those who are not in the camps.

Pearce says that there are no easy solutions when it comes to the situation in Iraq and Syria. She adds that the international community must include Christians and other minorities in the agenda when it comes to discussions about providing aid and intervening in the crisis.

"It is making sure that they are part of that discussion, part of that framework that we are considering when we are looking at different ways to intervene because there is great danger in all these debates about Sunni, Shia and Russia," she says. "There are huge parties involved, but those groups who aren't a large population, they fall through the cracks. Not just in the country, but in our plans to support the region as well," she continues.

Open Doors and its partners are currently providing aid to 15,000 displaced families in Iraq. A coordinator for the group says that the current battle in Mosul would have no immediate impact on their work.

According to the coordinator, most Christians will wait until the entire Nineveh Plain is completely safe before they return.