Iraq's Refugees ... and Terror

There's a connection:

More than one million Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria, putting an extraordinary burden on a poor country of 20 million people. 2,000 refugees from Iraq arrive at the Syrian border everyday, and Iraqi refugees residing in Syria comprise roughly 8% of that country’s population, a huge drain on the local economy...

The refugee crisis is also likely to lead to more terrorism and Islamic extremism. "Past experience has shown that large concentrations of refugees incubate irredentist violence and nourish jihadism. Coping with these flows will require the coordinated efforts of the UN, wealthy donor countries, and nongovernmental organizations…The presence of large numbers of Iraqi refugees in Jordan provides useful cover for jihadis looking to operate in that country. Moreover, the so called ratlines that bring foreign fighters into Iraq can support the reverse flow of terrorists to other regional cities or onward to western Europe." [Council on Foreign Relations, 9/07]