Five years after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, more people than ever before are displaced from conflict and sectarian violence, ensuring that the humanitarian crisis in the country is far from being solved.
Although the rate of displacement has slowed over the past year due to improved security in cities such as Baghdad and to sectarian cleansing of previously mixed neighbourhoods, there are now more 5.1 million Iraqis who are either displaced (IDPs) within Iraq or are living as refugees abroad. Of these, 2.7 million are IDPs and more than 2.4 million refugees, predominantly living in neighbouring Syria and Jordan.
Although Iraq was home to a substantial number of IDPs prior to 2003 due to the wars and the policies of the previous regime, military operations in 2003 displaced many tens of thousands more. In 2006, escalating sectarian violence drastically changed the scale and dynamics of displacement with more than 60,000 people being displaced internally per month at the peak of the crisis.
Conditions for the displaced have considerably worsened in this time with shelter, food, and employment remaining priority needs for Iraqi IDPs and refugees alike. These needs remain unmet due to ongoing insecurity and a major lack of funding for humanitarian relief.
The pressures of such large-scale internal displacement in such a short space of time has compounded the plight of the displaced with many governorates in Iraq unable to bear the stress of such large numbers of new arrivals on their infrastructure. Some governorates have closed their borders to newly displaced, and neighbouring countries have imposed strict visa requirements that also restrict Iraqis from fleeing the country.
Many IDPs live in sub-standard or over-crowded shelter as they are largely without the income to afford escalating rent prices. More than 75 per cent of IDPs do not have access to government food rations, and nearly 20 per cent are without clean water while 33 per cent do not have access to the medications they require.
Despite the efforts of the humanitarian community, IOM assessments of IDPs have found that only 20 per cent of them have received any assistance from an NGO or an international humanitarian agency.
Although there has been a lot of recent attention on Iraqis returning either from abroad or from elsewhere in Iraq due to improved security in their neighbourhoods of origin or to worsening security conditions in the areas to which they had originally fled, returnees represent only about one per cent of the total refugee and internally displaced population.
"It's important to view this piece of 'positive' news in context. Many of those returning cannot return to their homes because they are occupied or have been destroyed, forcing them into secondary displacement. IOM's own assessments of nearly one million recently displaced people show that for over one third of them, their homes have been occupied by others. They have no home to go back to," says IOM's Chief of Mission for Iraq, Rafiq Tschannen.
Ali and his family reflect the tragedy faced by many displaced families in Iraq. Ali's father was kidnapped two years ago and still has not been released, despite a ransom paid on his behalf. Both sons were also kidnapped and later released, and another son was killed in a car bombing. Threatened by armed groups and faced with the loss of many loved ones, the family fled their home and work in Baghdad. Now Ali's family is living in a relative's home with their relatives and another displaced family. Only one person has a job, which does not provide the income needed to support everyone in the house.
Despite insecurity, extreme challenges and limited funding, IOM continues to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced Iraqis and the vulnerable communities hosting IDPs. Since 2003, IOM has implemented 139 community assistance projects for water, sanitation, health, and livelihood as well as education assistance. IOM also delivers emergency humanitarian food aid throughout the country with more than 330,000 IDPs having benefitted from this assistance in the past two years alone. Overall, IOM has assisted more than five million internally displaced, returnees, and host community members since 2003.
"We urge donors to step forward and give this humanitarian crisis in Iraq the attention it deserves. To date, a two-year IOM appeal to assist Iraq's internally displaced is still only 28 per cent funded. We could be doing so much more to avert the suffering that is clearly in evidence all around us," added Tschannen.
For further information, please contact Dana Graber Ladek, IOM Iraq Displacement Specialist, Tel: +96265659661, email dgraber@iom-iraq.net