Population movements along border being investigated

The border situation remained unclear on Friday following reports of a major concentration of Iraqi refugees gathering along the Iranian frontier. The country was a major recipient of Iraqi refugees following the Gulf War in 1991 when 1.3 million of them fled across the border. "Up to 30,000 displaced Iraqis are reportedly in the Iraqi town of Badrah," Jack Redden, a spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Friday. "We have heard reports of a concentration of people along the border, and have sent a team to confirm," he said, noting there had been similar reports in the past, which later did not materialise. Redden's comments follow reports by the official Iranian news agency IRNA that close to 100,000 Iraqi refugees had reached the border near the town of Mehran in western Ilam Province on Thursday. Quoting Farhad Barikani, the secretary of the interior ministry's headquarters for the Iraq crisis, the report said the government's policy had been to prevent refugees from entering Iranian territory, but extending services to them inside Iraq's border instead. "Despite the readiness to settle the refugees inside the Iranian border strip, we preferred to hand over humanitarian assistance inside Iraq territory because of certain problems," he said. Describing the situation of the refugees at the border as "regrettable", Barikani called for the immediate assistance of international organisations. "Due to the high number of Iraqi refugees, there is need for more food and medicine, and the Islamic Republic cannot cope with meeting these demands single-handedly," he said. Joining that call, Redden said: "We are appealing for international agencies here in Iran to send aid to these people - food, water and so on." He noted that a number of organisations had been planning for such transporter operations and this would be a good opportunity for them to step forward. "They have been prepared for such a possibility." According to the IRNA report, Iran has set up two camps at the border towns of Mehran and Dehloran to accommodate 50,000 and 25,000 refugees respectively, with the Dehloran governor saying on Thursday that 91 Iraqi families had arrived at the border near Fakkeh in "unsuitable conditions", and been given food and medicine. Redden said, with the assistance of UNHCR, the Iranian government, had selected 10 refugee camp sites along its 1,458-km border with Iraq. Four of these were essentially ready to receive refugees should a possible influx occur, with six in reserve capable of handling up to 60,000, he said. UNHCR is currently storing relief items in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, and Ahvaz in the southwest. "We have supplies in the chain far exceeding 60,000," the spokesman said, noting that all the prepared sites could be expanded. Meanwhile, the governor of Mehran, Sadeq Lotfi, said there was an urgent need for food, water, ice, fuel and medicine to help the refugees. "The United Nations and the [International Committee of the] Red Cross must rush to help refugees along the [border of the] Islamic Republic given their deplorable conditions," the IRNA report quoted him as saying. "Chaos and disorder has created a terrible situation for these defenceless people, who are threatened by hunger and thirst," Mahmud Zamani Qomi, the governor-general of Ilam province, said. But caution remained the tactic being applied thus far. Asked if he anticipated those people currently in Badrah to cross the border, Redden said: "At the moment, these people reportedly want to remain in the town with their relatives and friends, and are not intending to cross. That's what they are telling us now, but we will be monitoring the situation closely."