Angelina Jolie Visits Kurdish Refugee Camp

The actress says the international community is failing in its efforts to address refugee crisis

Photo: Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty

The world is failing in its effort to address the refugee crisis in Iraq and Syria, Angelina Jolie said Sunday.

“We are being tested here, as an international community, and so far – for all the immense efforts and good intentions – the international community is failing,” the Unbroken director and Special Envoy for the UN Refugee Agency said at a press conference at a Kurdish refugee camp in northern Iraq this weekend.

The camp was built for tens of thousands of refugees who fled their homes in Mosul, which was invaded by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

“Since I was last here in Iraq another two million people have been forced from their homes,” she said. “The brutality of the conflict and the speed and scale of the displacement has shocked the world and help has come but not nearly enough.”

Jolie, 39, appealed to world leaders and asked them to find common ground and move forward.

“It is past time for leaders on all sides to find a common ground and a way to move forward,” she said. “It is not enough to defend our values at home we have to defend them here, in the camps and in the informal settlements across the Middle East, and the ruined towns of Iraq and Syria.”

During the trip, Jolie also met with families living in makeshift homes and took a tour of the area.

“The people I met today need to know that we will be with them giving them the support they need to survive for every day they remain displaced,” she said. “And above all they need to know one day they will be able to go home and that there will be an end to this suffering.”