Iraqi refugees waiting for repatriation

The first convoy of 100 Iraqi refugees to be repatriated from southwest Iran to their homeland are still waiting for the green light, as many prepare themselves for the journey to the country they left behind more than a decade ago. "UNHCR has put the logistics in place and we hope the convoy will be able to leave the camp and cross over into Iraq as soon as possible," spokeswoman for the United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iran, Marie-Helene Verney, told IRIN from the capital, Tehran on Thursday. "The general security situation and infrastructure in Iraq does not allow for movement," she added. The first refugees to leave will be those from the Ashrafi camp in the province of Khuzestan. With a population of more than 11,000, Ashrafi is the largest Iraqi refugee camp in Iran. The vast majority of refugees there arrived from southern Iraq in 1991. With its long rows of houses, shops and a mosque, Ashrafi has been transformed into a large village, but many Iraqi families are still looking forward to going home. Najem Abood Chowlan and his family have been busy packing their belongings accumulated over 12 years in Iran in readiness for their return to the southern Iraqi city of Basra. But following the security concerns they have had to put their plans on hold. Najem and his family fled Iraq in 1991 to escape Saddam Hussein's brutal repression of the Shi'ite uprising in the south in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. "I saw so many killings, hangings, executions," recalls Najem. "One day I saw Saddam Hussein's tanks rolling down our street, and that's when I decided we should leave. What else was I supposed to do to protect my family? Go and stand in front of the tanks with my boy? He was only eight at the time." Security has deteriorated in Iraq and many aid agencies have downsized operations following the truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August, which killed 23 people and injured at least 80. Last week's assassination of the Iranian Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim has also heightened fears of insecurity. Iraqi refugees arrived in Iran over the last three decades and there are some 202,000 in the country today, mainly in the west, with 48,000 sheltered in 22 camps overseen by the Iranian government. Acknowledging the desire for many wanting to return home, Verney highlighted the danger of spontaneous crossings from Iran to Iraq. "It is important to have even a small number of returns as the border is heavily mined and it is not safe for them to cross it themselves." However, some refugees have managed to make it safely into their homeland. Nima Ahmed Mahmoud went with his brother and nephew to Iran in 1991 as they all took part in the 1991 Shi'ite uprising and escaped to Iran as political refugees. "Although we were issued green cards to be able to work there, we could only get jobs that pay very little so I know of many others like me who prefer to come home even though we have no properties left and despite the stealing and looting taking place at home," Mahmoud told IRIN in Basra. He returned to his home city from Iran at the end of August and was forced to sell many of his belongings in order to make the journey back. Qassem Attiya who works in the administration of the religious Shi'ite Dawa party, returned from Iran almost two months ago. He said that around 440,000 Iraqi Shi'ite families who took part in the 1991 uprising were forced to leave the cities of Nasariyah, Karbala and Basra, because they were political opponents. "Iran didn't put obstacles in the way for these people to live there, but they were in miserable conditions. They now want to leave and it is their own responsibility and with their own expense that they have to find a new place to live in Iraq," he added. Nima and his family of three share a small apartment with another two families as accommodation is difficult to find. "I know of many returnees who live in schools because they don't have a place to stay in." Many returnees who came with little money will find it difficult to earn a living in Basra, which suffers from a high unemployment rate. Meanwhile, a third convoy of returning refugees from Saudi Arabia's Rafha camp arrived in southern Iraq after having to wait for nearly two weeks at a temporary camp in eastern Saudi Arabia. No date has yet been set for further convoys from Rafha, which still shelters more than 4,400 Iraqi refugees, the last of more than 33,000 who fled into Saudi Arabia in the final days of the 1991 Gulf War. The six buses and six trucks carrying 296 returning refugees and their belongings departed the Ar Raq'i pilgrim centre, 400 km east of Rafha. The returning refugees left Rafha camp on 19 August, but were delayed at Ar Raq'i following the bomb attack in Baghdad. UNHCR currently has 26 international staff in Iraq, half the number prior to the Baghdad terror attack, with half in the north and the remainder in Baghdad and Basra.