Charities 'shocked' by lack of plan for refugees

Charities have warned that Iraq faces a far worse humanitarian crisis than Afghanistan after a war and accused the Government of failing to prepare for the emergency.

The aid agencies predicted that 900,000 Iraqis could flee, mostly to neighbouring Iran. Yet the Government had no contingency plans, such as talking to neighbouring states about opening their borders and setting up refugee camps, the agencies said.

In the Commons, Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, accused the charities of "grandstanding". She said Britain was giving an extra £3.5m to support United Nations contingency planning for humanitarian relief in Iraq.

Save the Children said it was shocked by the lack of preparations by the Government when planning should have started three months ago. A spokesman said: "We are not able to prepare essential supplies and we are not able to place orders for specialist equipment and resources and we are not able to make concrete plans to respond to the threats we foresee. It's very worrying that the European Union and the UK Government have not been preparing."

Christian Aid said there was "huge potential" for catastrophe. "When there's war all distribution of aid breaks down ... We need to come up with preparations. But I don't see a plan," a spokesman said.

Ms Short said the UN must take the lead in running Iraq after a war. Her "greatest worry" was that the international community had not yet agreed the UN should run any interim administration.