IOM suspends operations in Mosul

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has temporarily suspended its operations in the northern city of Mosul following a rocket-propelled grenade attack on its office over the weekend. A security assessment of the area is now under way. "Our work in Mosul has been temporarily suspended and staff relocated to Erbil," the regional coordinator for IOM, Andreas Halbach, told IRIN from Baghdad on Tuesday. During Saturday's attack, a local guard was wounded, and two IOM vehicles and the wall of the compound were damaged. Halbach said IOM's project for internally displaced persons and some other major projects, as well as quick impact programmes (pro-sectoral rehabilitation projects) would be suspended until staff could return to Mosul. Commenting on the incident, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said in a statement issued in Baghdad that he deplored the attack "as he would any attack on international and non-governmental organisations". The attack comes one day after the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a warning saying that the situation inside the country was still too volatile for the large-scale return of refugees from abroad. The refugee agency has asked countries hosting Iraqis to extend by at least one month a moratorium on forcible returns of rejected Iraqi asylum seekers to their country. UNHCR said its team, led by Special Envoy Dennis McNamara, was in Iraq reviewing the situation on the ground and would advise governments on the feasibility of returns. According to an agency statement, the team's preliminary assessment showed that the situation in many parts of the country was highly volatile, and that Iraqis abroad were still in need of sanctuary. There are some four million Iraqis abroad, including asylum seekers and refugees. The UN refugee agency believes that of these, some 500,000 may seek to return home with its help once the situation inside the country improves.