11/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to be sent on 7 January 2008 to Dragutin Mate, Slovenian Interior Minister and President-in-office of the Justice and Internal Affairs Council, the president of the Commission of Episcopates of the European Union (COMECE, a Catholic organisation), Adrianus Van Luyn, discusses the fate of Iraqi refugees. More than 4.4 million Iraqis have fled their homes, the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East since 1948, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. COMECE points out that the refugees are not all Muslim - some are Christian, Mandean or Yezite - and the non-Muslims are a particularly vulnerable group. Comparing their fate to that of the Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s, Van Luyn suggests that EU governments should take care of 60,000 Iraqi non-Muslim refugees. He also calls for the issue to be put on the agenda of the upcoming JHA Council in Brdo/Lubjana (Slovenia) on 24 - 26 January 2008. (L.B.S.)