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Iraq

Iraq: Returns erratic as authorities clamp down on illegal IDP settlements

A recent assessment carried out by Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and IOM shows that returns throughout the country remain erratic as increasing numbers of destitute internally displaced families risk being evicted from public buildings or land they illegally occupy because they have no other place to go to.

In the southern governorate of Muthanna, local authorities have recently issued an order to remove all illegal collective settlements within two weeks, regardless of whether the squatting families are internally displaced or host community. In the Al Tanak neighbourhood, this decision will affect dozens of impoverished families who are living in mud houses on public land.

According to the report, eviction orders are sometimes opposed by displaced families who feel they simply have no other place to go. In Basra's Jenaina neighbourhood, IOM monitors report that families who were squatting in a former military intelligence building successfully staged a rally to protest against their eviction order.

In other governorates, security concerns continue to drive local authorities to search for and evict displaced families originating from neighbouring governorates. This is particularly affecting families from Diyala and Anbar who have been displaced to Salah al-Din governorate.

The report however notes that the Prime Minister's Office, Iraqi Forces, or the Multi-National Force-Iraq have facilitated returns to safer areas in Baghdad, while others are returning of their own accord within Diyala and Anbar governorates.

Improved security and reconciliation among various factions have led to more than 1,000 displaced families returning to Baghdad's Rasheed sub district. In Sadr City, only a few families have returned after recent clashes despite an improvement in the security situation due to the recent truce between Shia militiamen and government forces.

According to the report, returnees throughout the country face a chronic shortage of facilities, with almost half of the families saying they only had intermittent access to government food rations, which remain largely insufficient to meet their needs. Access to potable water, education, health care and medicines also remains problematic, particularly for poor families.

More than 2.7 million Iraqis are now internally displaced, more than 1.5 million of them since February 2006 when the bombing of the Al-Askari shrine in Samara triggered a new displacement crisis in the country.

To access the report, please go to:

http://www.iom-iraq.net/Library/IOM%20Iraq%20Displacement%20Assessments%20&%20Statistics%2015%20May%2008.pdf

For more information, please contact Dana Graber Ladek, IOM Iraq, Tel: +962 79 611 1759, Email: dgraber@iom-iraq.net