UNHCR to launch pilot project to return Iraqi refugees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that it would start helping small groups of Iraqi refugees to return home in the next few weeks - but said the country was not yet ready for large-scale returns. The UNHCR special envoy, Dennis McNamara, who was in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, said during a press briefing that the organisation had just agreed with the Coalition Provisional Authority to move a group of Iraqi refugees living at the Rafhah camp in Saudi Arabia within two or three weeks. "This is an important test group for the return of Iraqi refugees that will help us open up the return process," said McNamara, who also visited Iran and Kuwait. "Getting refugees and displaced people back is a contributing factor to peace." There are 5,200 men, mostly ex-soldiers who deserted from the army during the 1991 Gulf war, living at the desert camp. Of a total of more than 30,000 refugees originally evacuated there by the Americans, most moved to other countries, some have already returned to Iraq and about 2,000 now want to go home. UNHCR said it was also planning to help move a few hundred Iraqi refugees from Iran back to Basra in the south in the next few weeks. It said this had been agreed in principle with the Iranian authorities. The agency believes there are half a million Iraqi refugees, asylum-seekers or people in refugee-like situations who could eventually return home. They are spread over more than 40 countries, but most live in Iran, Jordan, Syria and Western Europe. "If we do not move some people they will start to move on their own. They are putting pressure on us," said McNamara. "That would be very dangerous as the border area is littered with mines and unexploded ordnance." However, McNamara made it clear the refugees would only be helped to return if they had an identified place to stay in Iraq, and back-up support. He added that Iraq was not ready for large numbers to return because of the security situation and lack of basic services. He estimated the number who would return this year would be in the low thousands. "We are not promoting the return of refugees, but we will facilitate those who want to go back," he said. "However, large-scale returns will not take place until next year." McNamara emphasised the need to give development aid to areas where refugees would return, while ensuring that the local community also benefited so as to minimise resentment. Many refugees have already returned on their own from Jordan, Lebanon and Iran. UNHCR will provide refugees with safe transport and some assistance. UNHCR is also helping the return of the one million displaced within Iraq - the result of a deliberate policy of forcible displacement by Saddam Husayn. In the north, Iraqi Kurds were forced to leave their towns and villages, while Arabs from the centre and south were brought in. Inevitably, the question of property rights is coming to the fore as people come home. There are plans for a National Adjudication System to work along with the courts to decide who has the right to live in a building - but this could take some time to establish. "We have offered help on the adjudication side, but it is not for us to lead - it will be an Iraqi system led by Iraqis," said McNamara. "We will focus on returning those who do not have disputes over property." UNHCR is also looking at ways to help foreign refugees in Iraq. The main groups are the Palestinians, who number about 80,000, Iranians of both Kurdish and Arab ethnicity, and Turks. The Palestinians, who arrived in several waves since 1948, were given houses and subsidised rents by the former regime. Now many are being evicted from their homes or find themselves targeted. More than 300 families who were evicted from their homes are living in tents in Haifa Sports Club in Baghdad. McNamara said UNHCR hoped to move them to better accommodation soon. UNHCR estimates that its operation in Iraq will cost just over US $50 million for the next six months. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is due to visit Iraq later this month to see the situation for himself.