Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Iraq

The internally displaced people in Iraq - Update 35

Attachments

Background and humanitarian context

By end of May 2008, the number of Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Iraq was 2,169,920. This marked a decrease by 3,234 people compared to April 2008. The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization registered changes in the numbers of IDP in three governorates- Kirkuk, Kerbala and Saladin.

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq resulting from the displacement problem continues. Thousands of families were displaced from their areas since the bombing of the Holy Shrines in Samara' (February 2006). Over two million people became internally displaced and over two million became externally displaced in neighboring countries. Thousands of displaced families became heavily dependant on humanitarian aid, which had intensified the growing humanitarian crisis. According to an assessment carried out by the World Food Program in 2007, some 55 percent of the displaced families were unable to get their food rations provided under Iraq's Public Distribution System (PDS) due to various difficulties including the transfer of their ration cards to their new place of residence.

The highest number of IDP was registered in September 2007- 2,299,425 people. Please see background information on monthly cumulative numbers of IDP and other distributions for 2006 and 2007 in Annex 1.

Recently, Kurdistan- the safe haven for many Iraqis became involved in armed conflict. Both the Iranian and Turkish military bombarded the border villages with artillery shells for weeks. Thousands of villagers migrated inland for fear of their lives thus compounding the displacement problem in Iraq. The latest incident took place on 25 April 2008 in Erbil, where there was bombardment of the border villages in Sida area. Disaster response activities of the Iraqi Red Crescent in the area included distributing relief aid and temporarily sheltering the displaced families in safe areas. Also, in Suleimaniah, the Iranian military bombarded the border villages which caused displacement of families to Bashdar. The Iraqi Red Crescent provided the IDP with food and relief aid.

Iraq embraced many families from other countries, which underwent difficult situations. These families could not endure the violent situation in Iraq during the past few years. They could not leave Iraq because no other country accepted to receive them and they are living in refugee camps at the Iraqi borders. Many endure difficult living conditions in the desert areas, hoping that some humanitarian organizations will adopt their case and provide them with their human rights and dignity. The Iraqi Red Crescent continues to assess the needs and provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees in the following camps:

- Sudanese camp- located 370 km from the center of Anbar governorate. Forty Sudanese families resided in the camp since three years.

- Ahwasian camp- located at the borders with Jordan (Traibeel area).

- Al-Waleed Palestinian camp- located in Tanaf area 450 km from the center of Anbar governorate at the Iraqi-Syrian borders. The camp shelters more than 292 families.