Christianity could be extinct in Iraq within five years, according to a new report from a British charity that has been backed by Prime Minister David Cameron.

The report, which looks at the persecution of Christian groups around the world and was compiled by the charity Aid to the Church in Need, was presented to Britain’s House of Lords on Tuesday. In comments reported by the Catholic Herald, Cameron backed the report and deplored the fact that “Christians are systematically discriminated against, exploited and even driven from their homes” every day in some countries.

The report highlights the plight of Christians in Iraq, where political instability since the 2003 war and persecution by Islamic State militants (ISIS) has reduced the population to around 260,000, from a peak of about 1.4 million during the rule of Saddam Hussein. It references an exodus from Iraq of Christians fearing ethnic-cleansing and potential genocide, and warns that “Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq within possibly five years unless emergency help is provided on a massively increased scale at an international level.”

In June 2014, ISIS took control of Iraq’s second city of Mosul, and members of the city’s Christian population were told to convert, pay a special tax or be put to death, according to the report. Thousands fled to the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, but ISIS overran the area in August last year and forced around 125,000 Christians to flee.

Some 100,000 Christians reportedly sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northwest Iraq that is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with many living in tents in Christian suburbs.

Aziz Emmanuel al-Zebari, a Chaldean Catholic and professor at Salahaddin University in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, says that persecution from ISIS is not the only reason many of his fellow Christians are leaving the country.

Read the article “Report: Christianity Faces Extinction in Iraq Within Five Years” on newsweek.com.