By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Refugee workers call it the "pull factor" -- camps with conditions comfortable enough to attract people in a country where an average of 60,000 Iraqis a month are driven from their homes by sectarian violence.
So the challenge for aid workers is to provide safe havens that do not invite permanence. The Qawala camp on the outskirts of Sulaimaniya in northern Kurdistan, a haven of stability in a treacherous country, fits the bill.
Conditions are unlikely to pull in all but the most desperate.
You smell the camp before you enter it -- the stench caused by the absence of proper latrines and the lack of running water. There is no kerosene for cooking and no electricity.
A collection of huts made up of blankets and cardboard, it houses 97 families or 470 people, all Sunni Arabs who left Baghdad and Diyala and Babel provinces because they feared they would be killed by Shi'ites in the mixed neighbourhoods that were home.
"This was my son," said Abela Abbas, showing a death certificate that listed the age of the deceased as 22. "He was shot in (the Baghdad Shi'ite district of) Khadimiya, where he worked. After that, we left."
The Iraq picture is grimly familiar: more than 4 million people driven from their homes since the 2003 U.S. invasion, according to aid organisations. Some two million fled to neighbouring countries.
In a report on deteriorating conditions in Iraq since the invasion, relief organisation Oxfam International said late in July that almost a third of the population needed humanitarian assistance but hunger and unemployment were particularly acute among the estimated 2.2 million internally displaced.
Still, no one wants them to settle in permanent camps.
Water in Qawala is held in aluminium tanks that are replenished by a Spanish aid agency: Sulaimaniya authorities are determined not to turn Qawala into a permanent camp, aid workers say.
"They fear the so-called pull factor," said Rosina Ynzenga of Solidarity International de Andalusia (SIA) -- which is providing the water.
At a June 24 meeting between aid organisations and the Deputy Governor of Sulaimaniya, Jutiar Nouri, the 'pull factor' was mentioned and, according to the minutes, the deputy governor gave the green light to tents and latrines -- as long as they were temporary and could be removed after the camp dwellers go.
Similar "pull factor" concerns are keeping a settlement at Kanakh, off the road between the cities of Arbil and Mosul, in conditions similar to those at Qawala. The Khanakh camp houses about 50 Kurdish families driven out of Mosul, where the population is a volatile mix of Kurds and Sunni Arabs.
Both Qawala and Kanakh are inside the three provinces run by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), whose semi-independent Kurdistan region has become an oasis of stability in Iraq and a destination for Iraqis seeking shelter.
But getting into Kurdistan is becoming very difficult for non-Kurds -- many are stopped and turned back at checkpoints on all access roads -- and the welcome for those already inside, such as the residents at the Qawala settlement, is wearing thin.
After complaints from Sulaimaniya citizens and local radio reports of rising thefts, robberies and other crimes, Qawala residents have been banned from leaving their camp and going into town or its markets on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
To show they are good citizens, they follow a self-imposed curfew after dark, when camp dwellers patrol the perimeter to make sure no one heads into Sulaimaniya.
"We are seeing a rising number of internally displaced Iraqis turning up in spontaneous camps and settlements in Iraq," said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. "It is something that has just started in the last six months."
"Most communities are trying to be as receptive as they can to people in need," Redmond said.
Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said camps are generally seen as undesirable because of their poor infrastructure for water and other essential services, and because residents tend to be exposed to extreme weather and security threats.
"They are the least viable option. Camps become extremely expensive for authorities to run and maintain," she said.
$3,850 A SECOND
International aid agencies have issued repeated appeals for increased funds to help the needy among those who fled abroad, mostly to Jordan and Syria, and those displaced internally.
The numbers have no precedent in the Middle East. They dwarf the great population dislocations prompted by the creation of Israel in 1948, when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians fled.
But the response to appeals for help for displaced Iraqis has been lukewarm at best. Earlier this month, the UNHCR doubled its appeal for Iraq funds this year to $123 million.
A few days later, the Iraq Chief of Mission of the IOM said "only a fraction" of internally displaced Iraqis were getting basic assistance.
"It is difficult to understand or to explain why there is so little response to requests for funds to help people in need of the most basic humanitarian assistance," said Rafiq Tschannen.
Compared with the cost of running the war, the funds requested by such organisations as the IOM and UNHCR are miniscule. According to the Congressional Research Service, a bipartisan agency of the U.S. Congress, the war in Iraq now costs the United States $10 billion a month.
That translates into roughly $333 million a day, $14 million an hour, $231,000 a minute and $3,850 a second.
The United States has contributed $17 million to the UNHCR this year and pledged another $19 million. The total, $36 million, equals less than three hours of war cost, according to the Congressional Research Service. The IOM's cold-shouldered $85 million request is the equivalent of six hours of war cost.
One international aid worker, who did not want to be named, had a simple answer to the question why there have been such meagre contributions, particularly from the United States, to alleviate the plight of Iraqis driven from their homes.
"These people are fleeing because there is no security. They fear for their lives. The U.S. sent additional troops this year to bring security. Paying attention to the refugees would mean admitting the U.S. strategy failed."
(Additional reporting by Laura Macinnis in Geneva)