Gorilla’s Guides

BAGHDAD, 28 February 2011 (IRIN) – Iraqi government plans for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees may not be fully implemented this year because of a funding shortfall, says Deputy Minister for Displacement and Migration Azhar Al-Mousawi.

“We have set [up] a lot of big projects this year, but the ministry – according to the allocated budget – may not be able to implement its commitments,” he told IRIN on 26 February.

In January, the government announced plans to tackle internal displacement, and monitor and assist Iraqi refugees abroad. It sought to encourage IDPs to go back to their areas of origin, stay in the areas they have ended up in, or help them move to a new area.

The government also established “Return Assistance Centres” in Baghdad, and offered a financial assistance package of US$850 and a six-month rental compensation package for registered IDPs.

“We have plans to tackle internal displacement, help the returnees and encourage expatriates [mainly doctors and teachers who fled the violence] to return," Mousawi said. "All these plans need money [but] what we have is not enough."

According to the UN Secretary-General’s representative on the rights of IDPs, Walter Kalin, the scale and history of forced displacement in Iraq  has created a complex situation that needs a “comprehensive strategy” to address the immediate humanitarian needs and human rights of displacement-affected communities, and find durable solutions.

“Iraq has suffered many waves of internal displacement throughout its recent past as a result of conflict, sectarian violence, and forced population movements associated with policies of the former regime – with an estimated 1.55 million persons remaining in displacement since 2006,” Kalin said in a 16 February report.

“This situation is compounded by a marked deterioration of basic infrastructures and services across the country, lack of livelihoods and economic opportunities, continuing insecurity and sectarian divisions, as well as serious deficits in relation to governance, rule of law and the capacity of government structures."

According to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Iraqi IDPs and refugees are unwilling to return to their places of origin because of continued real or perceived threats of violence: Their homes were either destroyed or occupied by others; and they lacked employment opportunities and access to essential services.

Seeking partners

Mousawi said his ministry, which is mandated to implement government plans for IDPs and returnees, was only allocated the equivalent of US$250 million this year, but needs $416-500 million to fully implement its plans. Iraq’s parliament approved an $82.6 billion budget on 20 February.

The ministry, he added, would review its plans and seek partners mainly in the UN. “Our priority is to help displaced people and returnees to meet their needs,” he said. “But returnees will need more to be spent on them than those still displaced because they need health, education and other services."

Funding shortfalls have also affected the work of international organizations. In its 2011 Global Appeal, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said its budget for this year in Iraq was about $210.6 million, lamenting a 20-40 percent funding shortfall.

“Some returnees and IDPs remain in dire circumstances that require urgent humanitarian interventions,” it said in an appeal earlier this year.

(For latest statistics on returnees and IDPs by governorate, see)

According to Kalin, over 75 percent of IDPs live in rented accommodation or with host families, while over 20 percent live in irregular settlements, former military camps, tents and public buildings.

There are an estimated 1.5 million IDPs across the country, according to Refugees International and the Brookings Institution. Many of these fled their homes after sectarian violence broke out following the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

(For a recent IOM review of displacement and return in Iraq since 2006, see)

IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Funding shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees | Iraq | Economy | Refugees/IDPs

MADRID, 13 January 2011 (IRIN) – Asma Al-Haidari, an Amman-based Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate, says the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Iraq touches the whole population, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief.

The number of missing persons in Iraq ranges from 250,000 to over one million, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

The length of time over which enforced disappearances have occurred in Iraq, starting with the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88), render this issue particularly complex, according to International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson for Iraq Layal Houraniyeh. The issue of enforced disappearances in Iraq represents, according to IMCP, “a major long-term challenge”.

Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

The Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010, 30 days after Iraq became the 20th state to ratify it on 23 November. It provides that “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance” and that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.” According to the UN Human Rights Council, “secret detention amounts to an enforced disappearance.”

“No safe place”

Focusing on enforced disappearance in Iraq since 2003, Dirk Adriansens, an expert on Iraq and member of international anti-war group the Brussels Tribunal, gave a presentation at a 9-12 December conference in London organized by the International Committee Against Disappearance (ICAD). Citing 2009 surveys by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), he said 20 percent of internally displaced and 5 percent of returnee families reported cases of missing children.

Further, UNHCR published findings in 2009 showing that “many communities reported missing family members – 30 percent of IDPs, 30 percent of IDP returnees, 27 percent of refugee returnees – indicating that they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and that they do not know what happened to their missing family members,” he said.

Adriansens added in his presentation: “A rough estimate would therefore bring the number of missing persons among the refugee population and the internally displaced after ‘Shock and Awe’ [2003 US-led military operation to invade Iraq] to 260,000, most of them enforced disappearances.”

Adriansens went on to say that by extrapolating UNHCR figures to cover the Iraqi population which had not suffered displacement, the total number of missing persons since 2003 “could be more than half a million”.

Jordan-based analyst Al-Haidari believes this number is higher, placing it in the range of 800,000 to one million. “There is no safe place in Iraq. People can be disappeared and sent to secret, illegal detention centres anywhere in the country, without the knowledge of the family or the person’s lawyer,” Al-Haidari said. “Many are assassinated and buried in secret. Many others are charged with trumped-up terrorism charges.”

Amnesty International report

A recent Amnesty International report said “an estimated 30,000 untried detainees are currently being held by the Iraqi authorities, although the exact number is not known as the authorities do not disclose such information.” In addition, there are detainees held at secret facilities, at which torture is common, it said.

A further 23,000 previously held without charge or trial by US forces are currently being transferred to the Iraqi authorities or released, though Amnesty International believes “[a state cannot] claim to be treating detainees humanely while knowingly handing them over to torturers, any more than it can knowingly `release’ detainees in a minefield and claim that their safety is no longer its responsibility.”

Source:IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge" | Iraq | Governance | Human Rights

DAMASCUS, 28 December 2010 (IRIN) – Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fled the country after sectarian violence broke out following the 2003 war which toppled Saddam Hussein. However, the precise number of refugees is hard to ascertain and fluctuates in line with changing perceptions and the security situation in Iraq.

"It would be nice to have the full picture, but the special circumstances of the Iraqi refugee population means we don’t… although we have a good idea of the refugees registered with us," said Andrew Harper, head of the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Iraq Support Unit in Geneva.

Host governments (largely in the Middle East) at one time estimated that more than 2.5 million Iraqis had fled to their countries. But that statistic is now too high, say independent experts not affiliated with UNHCR. Distinguishing between refugees and other migrants, and deducting the number of those who have returned to Iraq for good can be difficult.

UNHCR has registered just over 400,000 Iraqis since 2003 but currently they have 200,000 on their books. More refugees register every day – some 2,000 per month in Syria. However, the agency says those figures are not definitive.

"Many refugees choose not to register with us, either because there is a stigma attached in asking for assistance or they see no reason to register unless they need our services," said Harper.

Currently, host governments claim some 1.5 million Iraqis remain on their territories, while Refugees International, a US-based NGO, said it believed only 500,000 Iraqis remained outside the country.

Reasons for discrepancies

The Iraqi refugees are hard to track because they reside almost exclusively in an urban rather than a camp setting, predominantly in Syria and Jordan. In July last year, a UNHCR report detailed the challenges.

Population mobility is another factor, according to Harper. Many families are split or commute between Syria and Iraq to see relatives, work, or are checking the situation on the ground.

In such a situation, they are harder to count, or may have their files deactivated by UNHCR if they are absent for long periods. UNHCR says mobility is positive as it allows refugees to stay in touch with their country and prepare for an eventual return.

Bald statistics can be misleading

Bald statistics, without a breakdown, can be misleading due to the high rates of movement. Over the past few months, a fairly consistent number of refugees have been registered in Syria – currently some 139,586 – but this figure masks the fact that each month some refugees leave and others register. Some 32,200 files were deactivated in the first 10 months of 2010, 5,408 people were resettled elsewhere, 176 returned to Iraq under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation scheme, and some 18,719 registered in the same time period, UNHCR says.

Statistical methods are also variable. "Many Iraqi refugees fled before the war," said Elizabeth Ferris, a senior fellow and Iraq expert at the Brookings Institution. "There is no agreement as to which time period to count people in."

Challenges

Uncertainty over figures has posed challenges for aid agencies, but UNHCR says it bases its planning for staff and budget on the number of refugees it has registered.

Predicting trends can also be difficult, say experts. UNHCR has resettled more than 50,000 refugees, mostly in the USA, and assisted more than 2,000 to return to Iraq. But an unknown number is likely to have returned independently.

Within Iraq, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) registers returned refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). It says some 130,000 refugees have returned since 2007.

"Agencies have got used to working with imprecise figures," said Ferris, "but it is not good practice to develop programmes on this basis."

UNHCR contests this argument. "We have precise information regarding the registered refugees and base our programmes on their needs. This information is regularly updated," said Wafa Amr, UNHCR’s regional spokesperson.

Agencies have come up with novel techniques to meet the challenges. UNHCR has more than 150 outreach workers in Syria alone who visit neighbourhoods to identify refugees. Publications are used to raise awareness of the plight of the refugees. To maintain the dignity of refugees and overcome challenges posed by refugees living in an urban setting, UNHCR has made cash payments available via an ATM. UNHCR uses SMS text messages to alert refugees, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) recently rolled out an SMS food voucher scheme.

IDPs

Despite the uncertainty, no new assessment of the Iraqi refugees is due. "There is a fear the numbers would come in lower and this would have an impact on governments such as Syria and Jordan as it may affect the amount of financing channelled to them," said Ferris.

More is known about IDPs, as the Iraqi authorities are better able to track them. UNHCR, Refugees International and Brookings agree on a figure of 1.5 million, 500,000 of whom live in slums. Of the returnees registered with the IOM, 86 percent are IDPs but overall numbers of returnees are said to be low.

"Our main concern is that a very substantial number of Iraqis needing assistance are going to remain in 2011 and probably longer," said Amr.

IRIN Middle East | MIDDLE EAST: Iraqi refugees – interpreting the statistics | Iraq | Syria | Conflict | Refugees/IDPs

Food deprivation in Iraq EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Seven out of every 100 Iraqi individuals are undernourished. This is equivalent to an estimated 2.1 million Iraqis. In light of the history of conflict in Iraq and the current state of instability, this prevalence is rather low especially when compared to the overall prevalence of food deprivation within the Near East and North Africa region (7 percent in Iraq compared to 8 percent in the region).

The national prevalence, however, is not equally distributed at the sub national level as disparities exist between the Iraqi governorates. Although food insecure households exist in nearly all governorates of Iraq, they are found to be concentrated in Diyala, Babylon Basrah, Salah al Deen, Kerbala and Muthanna governorates where the prevalence of food deprivation ranges from 51 to 17 percent. The highest level of food deprivation is observed in Diyala governorate, where around one half of people were food deprived. The high prevalence of food deprivation in Diyala is attributed to disruptions in food distributions through the Public Distribution System caused by the incidence of violence and military campaigns during the data collection period.

The Public Distribution System (PDS) was established in 1991 to guarantee a provision of a minimum consumption needs to the Iraqi population through distribution of rations comprising of wheat flour, rice, sugar, vegetable oil, pulses, adult milk, infant formula and tea as well as other non food items at a highly subsidized price. The average daily dietary energy consumption in Iraq is 2580 kilocalorie per person, over half of which is acquired through the PDS.

At the level of household characteristics, food deprivation is concentrated within population groups characterized by low income, large households, whose head is over 50 years of age and is illiterate, involved in agricultural activities or unemployed.

Expenditures on food represents slightly more than one third (35 percent) of total household expenditures, of which, 80 percent is dedicated to commercial food purchases and the remaining twenty percent represents the value of the nominal payment required to receive the PDS food rations, the value of food produced and consumed by households and food purchased and consumed away from the home.

Despite having a share of 80 percent of all food expenditures, food purchased from the commercial markets provides only 44 percent of the kilocalorie consumption at the national level. Accordingly, the contribution of dietary energy from the PDS plays a critical role from the food security perspective while the contribution of purchased food plays an important role from the expenditure structure perspective and dietary energy acquired from food from own production is negligible. The high reliance of Iraqis within the lower income strata on food rations renders them vulnerable to any irregularities in the distribution system and market fluctuations.

The market price of 1000 kilocalories in Iraq is valued at 610 Iraqi Dinars on average. Accordingly, daily per capita expenditure on food is valued at 1590 Iraqi Dinars. When accounting for actual expenditures, subsidized prices of food provided through the PDS renders the cost of 1000 kilocalories to be 520 Iraqi Dinars on average, bringing daily per capita out of pocket expenditure on food down to 1360 Iraqi Dinars.

In general, the Iraqi diet is balanced from the perspective of macro nutrient consumption as the distribution of energy acquired from fat, carbohydrates and proteins is 26, 62 and 12 percent respectively. However, consumption of fat is nearer to the higher bounds and protein nearer the lower bounds of the FAO/WHO/UNU recommendations. Average daily cereal consumption of around 400 grams per person provides 53 percent of total dietary energy consumed, followed by oils and fats (12 percent) and sugar (11 percent).

Animal protein (meat, dairy products, eggs and fish) contributes 10 percent to the total dietary energy consumption. Food consumption is not equally distributed amongst all Iraqi households, as households of higher income group consume on average twice the quantity of dietary energy than that consumed by households in the lowest income group. Inequality in total expenditures is higher than food consumption inequality as total expenditures in the lowest income group is seven times less than that of the highest income group.

Source: ReliefWeb » Document » Food deprivation in Iraq

Download  Full_Report (pdf* format – 1.5 Mbytes)

Iraqi refugees regret going home, UNHCR survey finds | Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) – A majority of Iraqi refugees who have returned from exile to Baghdad regret their decision, saying they face insecurity, a lack of jobs and inadequate health care, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Some 61 percent of those interviewed were sorry they had left Syria and Jordan, while one in three was unsure of staying in Iraq, according to its recently-completed survey of 2,353 Iraqis who returned to the capital between 2007 and 2008.

"UNHCR staff were informed by returnees of numerous instances of explosions, harassment, military operations and kidnapping occurring in their areas of return," Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

Although many returnees said they had left their host countries because they could no longer afford the cost of living there, some 87 percent said their income in Iraq was insufficient to cover their families’ needs.

"One of the principal challenges we found for Iraqi returnees is finding regular employment, making them reliant on irregular jobs, which are often not available," Fleming said.

Separate polls of a total of 3,500 Iraqi refugees living in Syria and Jordan, released on October 8, found most still reluctant to return home on a permanent basis, according to the UNHCR.

Refugees cited political uncertainty and insecurity in Iraq, as well as poor educational opportunities and housing shortages. Syria and Jordan host some 180,000 registered Iraqi refugees.

FORCED DEPORTATIONS

While violence has plunged from the height of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007, explosions and attacks happen daily. Bombs destroyed the home of a senior Iraqi police commander on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people in the northern city of Tikrit, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, police said.

The UNHCR does not promote returns to Iraq, due to insecurity, and its guidelines to all governments strongly recommend that Iraqis should not be sent home to five central provinces, including Baghdad, seen as too dangerous.

However, it helps refugees who voluntarily want to go home, providing them with transport costs and a small cash grant.

Fewer than 3,000 have taken up the offer since 2007, though many have returned without its support, according to the agency.

"Iraqi refugees are the best judges of when to go back. Basically they are voting with their feet," said UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes.

The UNHCR also said that it remained concerned by forced deportations of failed Iraqi asylum seekers from five countries in Europe (Britain, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden).

It knew of seven chartered flights, coordinated by the European Union border agency FRONTEX, believed to have flown several hundred Iraqis back to their homeland since June.

"We would very much like to have a fuller picture of who is being returned and where," Wilkes said. "We hear from various countries that they plan to continue returns but we don’t know when."

Source: Iraqi refugees regret going home, UNHCR survey finds | By Stephanie Nebehay | Reuters

LONDON, 29 September 2010 (IRIN) – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern about the growing number of deportations of Iraqi asylum-seekers from Western Europe in the last two months.

Special charter flights to take failed asylum-seekers home have increased in frequency, and Iraqis are being returned to parts of the country which are still unsafe, in contravention of UNHCR guidelines for the handling of Iraqi asylum applications, it says.

The deportations are handled by Frontex, a Warsaw-based agency set up to coordinate operations between European Union (EU) member states in the field of border security, and their planes can carry returnees from several different countries. The most recent (on 22 September) had failed asylum applicants from Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.

One of the UNHCR’s complaints is that the information provided by those countries is usually sketchy, varies from country to country and is given only very late in the process. In the case of last week’s flight, Sweden told the UNHCR the names and dates of birth of those being sent home, but not their destinations. The UK provided details of where its rejected claimants were going but not their identities.

No country told the UNHCR how many of the passengers being put on board the plane were going home voluntarily, and how many were being deported against their will, but reports from Baghdad say police had to be called to escort some of them off the plane.

A spokesperson for the UNHCR, Sybella Wilkes, called for states sending home asylum-seekers to be more transparent. “We are aware when a flight is leaving,” she told IRIN, “but we don’t know until the last minute who is on board or which countries they are coming from.”

The organization does not oppose people being sent back to Iraq in every case. “It’s possible that some people on the plane were going back voluntarily,” Wilkes said. “It’s possible that some were going to areas where we don’t have issues about security. But we don’t know. Having full information would be in everybody’s best interests.”

What they do know is that among the passengers leaving Sweden were two women and four children. The British government said all those it was sending last week were single adult males, but their destinations included Baghdad, Ninawa, Kirkuk and Salah ad-Din – all areas the UNHCR considers unsafe.

Five governorates unsafe

“We are very clear in our guidelines,” said Sybella Wilkes. “Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninawa and Salah ad-Din are still not safe, in view of serious human rights violations and continuing security incidents in those areas. We specifically ask governments not to return people to those five governorates, and we are disappointed they are ignoring our guidelines.”

The general secretary of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, Dashty Jamal, blamed the rise in forced removals on the electoral success of right wing parties in a number of European countries. He told IRIN: “Most of the EU countries’ right-wing parties have united together to change their immigration policy, and deport back all Iraqis who apply for asylum in their country.”

He said that as well as the charter flights run by Frontex, individual refugees are being sent back almost every night on scheduled flights to Jordan. “I believe that no part of Iraq is safe, even Kurdistan. It is like the UN saying that Berne in Switzerland is safe but Zurich is not safe. This is not the time to send people back. They are playing with the lives of innocent people.”

Contacted by IRIN, the UK’s border agency denied there had been any overall policy recently to deport more Iraqi asylum-seekers. Detailed figures of deportations over the past two months are not yet available, but a spokesperson insisted that every case is looked at individually and considered on its merits. “We only ever return those whom the Border Agency and the courts are satisfied are not in need of our protection, and who have failed to comply with a request to leave.”

Are the Agency and the courts ignoring the UNHCR guidelines on safe and unsafe areas? “A whole range of factors are taken into account,” the spokesperson told IRIN. “And from the UK’s point of view we have to be satisfied that they don’t need our protection.”

The UNHCR has been lobbying since June against the forced removals to Iraq, but says so far they have not seen any shift in position by Western European governments. Sybella Wilkes says she is disappointed. “I would like them to consider that they have a minority of Iraqi asylum-seekers in their countries. And this is not a very positive example when Iraq’s neighbours have much greater numbers, and have been much more generous and welcoming.”

Dashty Jamal told IRIN on 28 September that a number of Iraqis in the UK had received tickets for a flight back to Iraq on 6 October, and that a demonstration was being planned that day outside the Iraqi embassy in London to protest at the way returnees are treated when they get to Baghdad.

Source: IRIN Global | REFUGEES: UNHCR concerned over Iraqi deportations | Global | Iraq | Refugees/IDPs

DAMASCUS, 7 September 2010 (IRIN) – Iraqi refugee children in Syria are struggling to keep up at school, or are dropping out to seek paid work, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Education is absolutely central to the future of all children. Having a generation not equipped to participate in the economy of their country serves no one,” said Sherazade Boualia, UNICEF head in Syria.

Syria, which took in up to 1.2 million of the two million refugees who fled sectarian violence in the wake of the 2003 war in Iraq, opened its public education system to the refugees, but many are unable to benefit.

Children often work to bring in extra income for their families. Iraqis are not legally allowed to work in Syria and black market jobs often pay just 100 SYP (US$2) per day, according to the refugees.

Hussein Ali, 16, said he had to drop out of school to earn money cleaning in a hotel. “We are very grateful for the cash assistance from the UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency],” said Mr Ali, his father, who has a disability which prevents him from working. “But it is not enough.”

Others have to travel too far to get to a school with available places, or cannot afford the nominal fees. “Most of the Iraqi refugee population is concentrated in and around Damascus where schools’ capacity is already stretched,” said Boualia.

The refugees’ plight is getting worse as remittances are drying up and savings running out, said US NGO Refugees International.

Over the last three years the number of Iraqi refugee children dropping out of school has risen steadily, according to UNICEF.

Government figures indicate that 49,132 Iraqi refugees were enrolled in the 2007-2008 school year, but this dropped to 32,425 in 2008-2009. Refugees International said the number had dropped further this year, with 30 percent fewer children enrolled.

"The decline is linked to families experiencing more financial stress as well as resettlement to third countries and returns to Iraq," said Boualia.

Anecdotal evidence suggests most of those dropping out are male, with families keeping girls in school.

Teachers say Iraqi children are falling behind at school due to emotional problems, gaps in their education, or difficulties adjusting to their new situation in Syria.

Action

In coordination with the Syrian government, UNICEF is attempting to tackle the problem with a US$6 million project, which includes improving facilities at schools with a high proportion of refugees, remedial classes for children who have fallen behind, and vocational evening classes for those working.

UNICEF is also training teachers in the psycho-social needs of Iraqis which may be preventing them from concentrating. “The majority of Iraqis have at least one family member that suffers from extreme depression," said Elizabeth Campbell, senior official at Refugees International. Many of those are children. UNHCR says 150 Iraqis are referred for counselling every month.

Refugee registration data shows most Iraqi refugee adults living in Syria are educated and value education for their children. But experts say solutions must be found or children will continue to drop out of school.

“The needs of the whole family must be met to ensure children attend school,” said Campbell.

Experts say providing families with financial assistance contingent upon their children enrolling in school, or providing hot meals at schools, might be one way forward.

IRIN Middle East | SYRIA: Iraqi refugee children dropping out of school | Middle East | Syria | Children Education Refugees/IDPs | Feature

MADRID, 20 June 2010 (IRIN) – Refugee officials and rights groups have urged a number of European countries not to forcibly repatriate Iraqi asylum seekers, particularly members of minority communities, because of prevailing insecurity in the country.

These demands were made in response to recent announced repatriation plans by the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway. The UK has already begun deporting some Iraqis, with some 40 asylum-seekers arriving in Baghdad on 17 June – the UK’s third deportation in that week.

“Our position and advice to governments is that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from Iraq’s governorates of Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa and Salah-al-Din, as well as from Kirkuk province, should continue to benefit from international protection,” Melissa Fleming, a spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said at a press briefing on 8 June.

“Our position reflects the volatile security situation and the still high level of prevailing violence, security incidents, and human rights violations taking place in these parts of Iraq,” she said.

While its deportations have been criticized for being highly secretive, the British government has insisted the people it was repatriating were from safer parts of Iraq. UNHCR has expressed concern that the forced returns send the wrong message to host countries neighbouring Iraq, namely Syria and Jordan.

Minority attacks

Iraqi minorities – including Christians of various denominations, Yazidis and the Shabak – living in third countries are particularly fearful of any forced returns.

A Chaldean Christian Iraqi refugee who has lived in the Netherlands since 2006 told IRIN on condition of anonymity that he feared being singled out for deportation because of the many attacks against his community in Iraq.

"Kidnappings and politically motivated killings continue to take place in what seems to be an attempt to resettle or eradicate Iraq’s indigenous population," he said.

He is one of more than half a million Iraqi Christians who have fled since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. According to the US-based Brookings Institution, an estimated 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq since numbering between 1 million and 1.4 million before 2003.

“Christians continue to be targeted and there is no protection from the Iraqi authorities,” said Dr Ghazi Rahho, a Christian Iraqi who fled the country several years ago and now works as a professor in Jordan.

Rahho’s cousin, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, a leading Christian authority in Iraq, was kidnapped and killed in February 2008, an incident that led to some 12,000 Christians fleeing Mosul, about 400km northwest of Baghdad. “To date, kidnappings and assassinations are taking place. And other tactics are used to terrorize Christians. Our churches, for instance, are being bombed," said Rahho.

According to an April 2010 Amnesty International (AI) report, more than 100 people were killed between mid-July and mid-September 2009 in attacks targeting Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans, Yazidis, Turkoman Shias, Shabaks and Kaka’is.

AI has called on the international community to “end all forcible returns to any part of Iraq; any return of rejected asylum-seekers should only take place when the security situation in the whole country has stabilized.”

NGO Minority Rights Group International has detailed evidence of violence against Iraq’s minority communities in a June 10 report and expressed an urgent need for legislation implementing minority rights in the country to address an “ongoing climate of impunity that exists in relation to attacks on minorities”.

Iraqi refugee landmark

Meanwhile, UNHCR announced on 18 June that a landmark 100,000 Iraqis had been referred for resettlement from the Middle East to third countries since 2007. About 45 percent of that number lives in Syria, UNHCR said, adding that the referrals acceptance rate by host countries was 80 percent, of which 76 percent were accepted by the US.

Iraqis are the second largest refugee group in the world, according to UNHCR’s 2009 Global Trends report, with an estimated 1.8 million seeking refuge primarily in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

The report, released in advance of World Refugee Day on 20 June, said voluntary repatriation worldwide in 2009 was the lowest for 20 years, with around 251,500 returns, of which only 38,000 were Iraqi.

IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Forced repatriation puts minorities at risk | Middle East | Iraq | Human Rights Conflict | News Item

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees have been stuck in Syria for years. They are running out of money and into trouble.  

Burud (39) walks with a limp. She lifted her long dress to show that she has been missing a foot ever since she came too close to an exploding bomb in Baghdad in 2005. After she recuperated from her injuries – most of them, that is, she is still missing a hand and her body is full of shards left by the bomb. Burud fled to Syria, where she remains to this day.

Most refugees are Sunnis

According to UN estimates, Syria harbours up to 900,000 Iraqi refugees.

Of all registered refugees, 65 percent are from Baghdad province.

Most, (62 percent) are Sunnis. Only 19 percent are Shiites. Slightly less (11 percent) of refugees are Christian.

In Iraq, 60 percent of the population is Shia, 20 percent are Sunni and one percent is Christian.

She lives in the narrow Sha’ab street, out in the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk, with her six children, aged 4 to 17. For Burud, going back is not an option. “I have gone through enough,” she said. “And besides, we were kicked out of our house by Shiite militias.”

Hundreds of thousands fled for Syria

Burud is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees who have been living in Syria for years. Most of them do not live in refugee camps but have found a place amongst the Syrians. About 163,000 refugees are currently registered with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, but it is estimated that an additional 400,000 to 800,000 have not. “Perhaps they don’t need our help. Or perhaps they don’t trust us,” said Farah Dakhlallah, a spokesperson for the UNHCR in Damascus.

After the2006 bombing of Al Askari mosque in Samara set off a wave of violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq, refugees started pouring into Syria in huge numbers. At one point, tens of thousands were arriving weekly. Since 2008, Iraq has slowly become less violent. The number of people killed dropped from 2,000 a month to somewhere between 200 and 300. But, like Burud, many refugees have no intention of returning. They no longer have homes to go back to, or remain wary of conditions in their home country.

The UN has yet to give the green light for them to return. “A lot of problems remain with general security,” Dakhlallah said, sitting in the UNHCR’s Damascus office. “In addition, power and potable water are not readily available. Unemployment levels are high. We do not believe that the conditions allow for a safe, permanent return, particularly in the five central provinces. A lot of work remains to be done there.”

The Iraqi government promised large sums of money, housing and jobs to returning refugees. “But it has failed to make good on those promises,” said Filippo Rossi of the UNHCR registration centre in Douma. Many people have returned without any assistance; the UN assumes some 60,000 did in the last year.

New refugees are still coming

But at the registration centre, dozens of new arrivals still awaited their turn. Every day, some 20 to 30 families, 150 a week, still check in here. Approximately 60 percent are fresh from Iraq. The others have been in Syria for a while but only register once they run out of money and need support. The slower influx of refugees means that their total number is now declining, but the Iraqis left here are doing worse and worse. “Most are middle-class Iraqis who have been pushed into the margins of society,” Dakhlallah said.

Officially, refugees are not allowed to work in Syria. “Which forces them to work illegally,” said Dakhlallah. They lose their dignity and their families fall apart. Domestic violence becomes more frequent. Generally speaking, a lot of negative phenomena are on the rise: child labour, forced marriages, prostitution.”

Mazen (50) is a Sunni from the Al-Ghazaliya neighbourhood in Baghdad. “I had a prospering car rental business,” he recalled. “But Shiite militias took over my neighbourhood in 2006. I was threatened and told to leave. One day, militias gained access to my home by posing as a regular patrol and raped my wife. I took her, my daughter [now 14] and my two sons [18 and 21] and fled here. By now we have gone through all of our savings, and there is no work here for us.”

Mazen does not want to go back. Al-Ghazaliya is still under Shia control. “If we returned we would be killed. Here we are safe, but dependent on outside help. I have lost my dignity,” he said.

All registered refugees are entitled to food rations consisting of rice, sugar and tea. Vulnerable groups, single mothers especially, also receive financial assistance of some 80 euros a month. They pay only a nominal fee for basic medical care and their children can attend school for free.

The UNHCR is trying hard to prevent Syria’s better healthcare from drawing ‘medical tourism’ from Iraq. The UN supports Syrian healthcare and education by building new schools, for instance, and introducing new educational methods. “It is important to continue this assistance,” Dakhlallah said, “so Damascus won’t suddenly decide it has had enough. So far, Syria has been more than generous.” Still, the UNHCR expects that international financial contributions will dwindle as the world’s attention shifts away from Iraq and its refugees. “Iraq is no longer the world’s biggest problem, but this would be exactly the wrong moment to pull out. A lot of refugees can’t return,” Dakhlallah said.

Burud’s husband returned to Iraq in 2006 to earn money. “He is risking his life,” Burud said. “At a certain point he was kidnapped ad by Shiite militias, held captive for three months and tortured.”

“In Iraq we are humiliated. We have asked our government for help, but only Shiites or people with wasta [connections] receive it. I am not going back.”

Source: nrc.nl – International – Features – Iraqi refugees in Syria not going back soon

افادت منظمة لاجئون دوليون " ريفوجيز انترناشيونال(Refugees International) " غير الحكومية ان مئات الاف العراقيين الذين نزحوا من ديارهم بسبب الحرب الى مخيمات يعمها البؤس, يعانون من ازمة انسانية خطيرة. وكشفت المنظمة ان بين المليون ونصف المليون عراقي الذين اضطروا الى مغادرة منازلهم في العام الفين وستة والفين وسبعة زهاء خمسمئة الف, يعيشون في الاكواخ". وافاد تقرير للمنظمة ان الحكومة لا تبذل الكثير وربما لا تفعل شيئا لمساعدة النازحين داعية الولايات المتحدة "التي تتحمل مسؤولية خاصة" في هذه الازمة الانسانية الى الاهتمام بهم وفق التقرير . من جانبه، دعا سفير العراق في الولايات المتحدة سمير شاكر الصميدعي الحكومة الى بذل المزيد من اجل العراقيين النازحين داخل وخارج البلاد وقال ان "بلدا يقوم على بحر من النفط لا يجب ان يعيش سكانه في مثل هذه الظروف".

( روابط ذات علاقة - Iraq: Humanitarian Needs Persist | Refugees International | Gorilla’s Guides  )