Angelina Jolie Visits Refugees in Iraq

By steph โ€ข

Angelina Jolie Visits Refugees in Iraq

Angelina Jolie visited Iraq on Tuesday to meet with refugees and U.S. troops in the country.

Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, made the visit during a two-day trip to the region, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

The statement said the 32-year-old actress met with displaced Iraqis in neighboring Syria on Monday before crossing into Iraq for a few hours Tuesday โ€œto see firsthand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the ongoing conflict.โ€

โ€œI 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,โ€ the Geneva-based agency quoted Jolie as saying.

Jolie 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 U.S. troops in the area, the agency said.

UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort said the trip had been organized weeks in advance at Jolieโ€™s request.

Jolie has worked with UNHCR since early 2001. In May, a foundation set up by Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, donated $1 million to help those affected by the conflict in Sudanโ€™s Darfur region and neighboring Chad.

The U.N. refugee agency estimates that more than 4.2 million Iraqis have left their homes most of them since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Of these, about 2 million have fled to neighboring countries including Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.

According to UNHCR, thousands of Iraqis continue to stream into Syria every day, placing a heavy strain on the countryโ€™s housing, health care and education sectors.

Last month the agency and UNICEF launched an appeal for nearly $130 million to help provide education to displaced Iraqi children across the Middle East. The U.S. said Tuesday it would contribute $30 million to the appeal.

(Via Entertainment Index)

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