800,000 Iraqi Refugees Reported To Be in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria has said more than 800,000 Iraqis have fled the violence raging in their country, the official Al-Baath newspaper quoted the Syrian Interior Ministry as saying yesterday.

The report put the influx down to Syria's relaxed rules for Arabs seeking visas as well as Syria's physical and cultural proximity to Iraq. The report said as many as 648,000 of the Iraqis entered Syria in 2003 in the months after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqis are granted annual residence permits if they have a fixed financial income, private property, or have registered their children at a Syrian school, the Interior Ministry official was quoted as saying. Iraqi refugees have settled mostly in and around Damascus. Most are said to be middle class and living on savings.