UNHCR Releases Survey, Urges Caution on Iraqi Refugee Situation

Despite reports in some major media outlets that refugees are returning to Iraq due to safer conditions there, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has conducted a survey finding that most refugees are returning because of difficulties remaining in foreign countries. It has also urged caution with regard to the return of additional refugees.

According to a press release issued by the United Nations on Friday, a survey of one-hundred Iraqi refugee families returning from Syria (conducted by UNHCR staff) found that most of them were returning due to a lack of funds or resources, poor living conditions, or expired visas. The survey also found that refugees are being encouraged to return by incentives which are offered to them by the Iraqi government. It indicated that the Iraqi govt. is providing seven to eight hundred dollars to returning refugees, along with free transportation to return.

The press release indicates that UNHCR staff also interviewed returning refugees in Baghdad, finding that many had returned because they had entirely or mostly depleted their savings in another country before coming back. As for security, some of the refugees expressed encouragement with regard to local security, but had concerns over security in the long-term and in other parts of the country.

UNHCR also found that about fifteen-hundred Iraqis are returning from Syria each day, while about 500 enter the country, which (like other neighbors of Iraq) has become reluctant to accept more refugees due to the economic burden. Nearly two and a half million Iraqis are displaced from their previous place of residence but remain in Iraq, while more than two million are refugees outside the country (mostly in Syria and Jordan).

The spokeswoman for UNHCR, Jennifer Pagonis, was quoted as saying that the agency is willing to provide assistance for people returning to Iraq, but cautions that it is not yet the right time to "promote, organize, or encourage" the return of such refugees. She expressed the belief that this will only be appropriate when the right conditions exist, including better security.

The CIA World Factbook entry on Iraq indicates that smaller groups of refugees have fled to Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon, while most reside in Syria or Jordan. As of July, the country's population was estimated at just under 27.5 million. Unemployment is approximately twenty-five to thirty percent, and the per-capita GDP is about nineteen-hundred dollars as of 2006.

Sources:
1. United Nations, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24777
2. CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html