UNHCR resumes repatriation from Iran

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges (UNHCR) this week sent its first convoys of Iraqi refugess across the border from Iran for over a month, the agency told IRIN on Friday. "The first trucks left on Tuesday from the Ansar refugee camp in southeastern Iran with 251 Iraqis and the second group of 276 urban refugees went on Wednesday from Ahwaz," Marie-Helene Verney, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said from Geneva. The convoys should be weekly but since November when they started it has been "one week on three weeks off," she said. The convoys pass through the Shalamsheh border crossing point which had been closed since 12 August for security reasons. But following the go-ahead from Iraq, whose troops escort the refugees during the half hour journey to Basra, voluntary repatriations have now resumed. UNHCR does not promote or actively encourage voluntary repatriation in Iraq, not only due to security but also because of infrastructure and housing issues, Verney noted. "It's very difficult to make the call, but when you have people crossing a mined border on their own, at least you can help them to cross more safely," she said. Tens of thouands have crossed the dangerous Iraqi-Iran border independently since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year. UNHCR itself has helped to repatriate around 8,000 people since late 2003. Most have gone to the south to rejoin relatives in and around Basra, the agency said. A second border crossing was opened at Haj Omran in June for northern Iraq, taking Iraqis of mainly Kurdish origin. But there have been no crossings there since early August in response to Iraqi authority concerns about a lack of housing, UNHCR said. Housing remains a major issue in northern Iraq with up to 20 percent of people thought to lack proper accomodation. UNHCR has been working with other aid agencies to help alleviate the problem and is running shelter operations in 70 different locations in the northern provinces. However, there is still no date set for when convoys can return to the north.