Focus on returnees from Iran in the South

After living in Iran for almost 13 years in a refugee camp, the family of Mohsen Dighbash thought that coming back to their home region of Basra in southern Iraq would be much better. "Living in Iran was tough as a refugee but we knew that going back to Iraq after the fall of the regime would not be easy, especially with the current deteriorating security situation. We thought there would be better work opportunities," Mohsen, told IRIN, adding that he was told that those who did not have homes to return to would be given flats. Mohsen, like other Iraqi returnees who fled the country during the Shi'ite uprising in the south against Saddam Hussein in 1991, came back to find his flat had been demolished and had to start life again, because without documents, he could not prove it was his property. The Shi'ite stronghold around Basra was brutally punished for fostering insurgencies against Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime. Thousands were believed to have been killed in the failed revolt, with many fleeing to neighbouring Iran. Now, Mohsen lives in a tent given to him by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the shell of a former government building, which was looted and burnt after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "We are threatened with deportation from time to time. Once by the Iraqi police and by the British troops," he said. His wife, who was trying to prepare food for the early breakfast during the holy month of Ramadan, was gathering some logs to make a fire as the small stove she had was not big enough to hold a large cooking pot. "If I knew that this was the way I was going to live here, I wouldn't have come back; our camps in Iran had better facilities," she said. "At least it felt much safer to be there, with other Iraqi families, and better security conditions.” INTERSOS, an Italian NGO working with UNHCR in the south to register returnees, is aware of the housing problem. "We have four offices to register returnees in the southern governorates including an office on the border city of Shalamcheh in Iran's Khuzestan province to register those who come spontaneously," an INTERSOS aid worker told IRIN. "We mainly try and reach those returnees who came a few months ago and register so we can distribute tents and food items for one month and then help them register in the Public Distribution System (PDS monthly food ration)," he added. He said that many returnees who had lost their homes now lived with relatives but the worst cases were those who do not have a place to live and no family nearby. "They are in miserable public buildings," he said. Around 10 families who returned back from Iran during the last year now live in the former government building. Most of them are relatives, who fled to Iran amid the 1991 Shi'ite uprising. "We used to live as farmers around the marshlands and we did farming where we were living in Iran, in Ahwaz, almost 100 km from the Iraqi borders," one of the returnees told IRIN. Many say despite rehabilitation programmes in the area and reflooding, the marshlands are not as prosperous as they used to be. "Now, we can't go back to the marshlands. It is not the same as before, since the former regime drained the area. There is no farming or fishing, no houses or schools or services like before," he added. The marshlands were drained by Saddam Hussein to stop prosperity of the Marsh Arabs. "I registered with the UN to stay at the camps [in Iran] for over 20 years. Now the former regime is over but since my flat was demolished, I came back to Basra and couldn't find a place to stay except in these damaged former government buildings," Nigm Maghames, one of the returnees told IRIN. He returned to Basra seven months ago and since then has been living with his wife and three children in a room of a former government office. "In fact, I'm renting this room as those places were looted and were taken over by some people who are renting them to others," he added. Officials here acknowledge that there is a shortage of housing in the country with some 300,000 housing units planned across the country. Although the refugee agency is not encouraging refugees to return to Iraq due to insecurity it is helping with repatriations for those who insist. At least 241,962 Iraqi refugees have returned to southern Iraq since last year.