Masad Ammar,* his wife and children recently fled their home in Abu
Ghraib, Baghdad, after they received a threatening letter warning
them that if they did not leave within three days, they would be
killed. They grabbed what few belongings they could and fled. They
now live with other displaced families in a former military
facility. They have no electricity, water or sewer system, and
insurgents have moved into their former home.

“We do not think the security will improve and we cannot
go home. We just want to live in peace and try to blend with the
other families living here,” says Masad, as he and his family
gather in the tiny room they are occupying in the abandoned
building. They need even the most basic items such as mattresses,
cooking utensils and clothes.

Iraq has a long-standing history of dis¬placement with
almost 1.5 million people displaced throughout the country over the
past four decades. Increasing violence has now resulted in one of
the worst displacement crises in its history.

On 22 February 2006, the bombing of the Al-Askariya shrine in
Samarra in the Iraqi governorate of Salah al Din plunged the
country deeper into volatility. Religious and community tensions
had already been brewing since the demise of Saddam Hussein. The
bombing seemed to be the spark that ignited an ever-increasing
spiral of violence and displacement throughout the country.

“When Saddam’s regime collapsed, we were rejoicing
and waited for democracy to change our lives, but our dreams have
not come true. Instead, we face unending violence. I am making
plans to leave the country,” revealed Omer Mahmood, a medical
doctor who is currently living in Kirkuk. Some of Omer’s
colleagues have been killed or kidnapped, and he has witnessed the
displacement of his family and friends.

By end of November, IOM Iraq estimates that more than 250,000
people have been displaced in central and southern Iraq since 22
February, with about 1,000 people being displaced on a daily basis
over the past few months.

“The violence is segregating Iraq,” said Haider
Anwar, who is managing IOM Iraq’s Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP) monitoring and assessment project. “Due to
forced displacement, even neighbourhoods in Baghdad City are either
one religious sect or another, and it is too dangerous to live
there unless you are part of a certain sect.”

Ali Jaber fled with his family of eight from the violence in his
home town in Diyala to the governorate of Wassit, where they moved
into a one-room mud home outside its capital, Kut. In Diyala, Ali
supported his family as a successful taxi driver, but since their
displacement, Ali hasn’t been able to find work. He and his
family struggle to pay for food and rent. “It is humiliating
to live like this,” says Ali.

Hayder J Ali, a medical doctor who heads a local Iraqi NGO, says
that displacement is taking a great toll on the physical and
psychological well-being of both children and adults.
“Displacement in Iraq is often accompanied by a loss of
employment and access to basic services, increasing the feelings of
anger, hopelessness and inadequacy. The living conditions of many
displaced persons are deplorable, and communicable diseases and
acute or chronic mental illness are common.”

The alarming increase in displacement brought to light the need
for a thorough monitoring and needs assessments of recently
displaced populations. IOM, as the lead organization for IDP
monitoring and emergency assistance in Iraq, began to help track
that displacement and to identify the IDPs’ most basic needs,
their intentions, and why they were displaced. It was and is, a
huge, dangerous and extremely difficult undertaking.

Experienced interviewers travel throughout Iraq’s central
and southern governorates to identify and interview IDPs. In some
regions, the security situation, checkpoints or road closures
prevent or hinder their work at times. Often the interviewers
cannot reveal they are working for an international humanitarian
organization. Any such association makes them a target for
insurgents and criminals.

The interviewers sit with the families or local community
leaders to obtain the information needed and listen to the
IDPs’ needs and concerns on numerous issues. But the research
goes deeper. Tribal and community leaders, local NGOs, the Iraqi
Ministry of Displacement and Migration and local government bodies
are also visited in order to gather additional information.

That information gives IOM and others not only an idea of the
scale of displacement in each of the 15 central and southern
governorates the Organization is monitoring, but is also critical
in helping it to prioritize emergency operations and in designing
long-term durable solutions to the displacement crisis. What help
is needed for those who never plan to return to their former
homes?

This is an issue for those who have fled to the south of the
country such as Basrah. Here, where the situation is a bit more
stable, communities are more homo¬genous and where IDPs have
tribal or familial links, the displaced want to stay and integrate
with the local community. But for that, permanent housing and
employment are key.

Finding durable solutions in Baghdad, for example, which is more
violent, unstable and less homogenous, is difficult in a different
way. Many IDPs here say they plan to return to their original
homes. But the longer they are displaced, the harder it becomes for
them to go back, especially as Iraq’s religious and ethnic
communities become increasingly separated.

More pressing are the immediate needs of the displaced. And with
winter fast looming, some of the most basic requirements will
become critical to their survival.

Many IDPs rank shelter and access to work as their priority
needs. In many areas, an increase in displacement has resulted in
increased competition for housing and a subsequent hike in rent,
land prices and shelter materials. The irony is that if the IDPs
could find a job – a difficult task already in a country
where social and economic disintegration combined with high
nationwide employment has had a catastrophic effect on work
opportunities for all – their shelter and food needs would,
to a certain extent, be met.

For Mohammed Abbas, a new job and increased security for his
family were his hope. He, his wife, two sons and daughter were
displaced from Baghdad to Kerbala. In Baghdad, he owned a shop and
repaired electronics. However, with no job in Kerbala, Mohammed
says that his family will soon have to return to the Iraqi capital
as they don’t have the money to pay the rent for the coming
months. But returning to their home Abu Ghraib, a notoriously
dangerous area, is unthinkable. It’s likely they will be
forced to move yet again and stay with relatives who live in a
somewhat “safer” area in Baghdad.

Mohammed, like many other parents, is worrying about what
displacement is doing to his children. They, however, are some of
the luckier ones. They have their parents. IOM’s monitoring
has found that children, single women, the elderly and the sick are
the most vulnerable among the displaced.

Increasing numbers of widows as the death toll in Iraq rises
means that they and their children are being left to fend for
themselves. With very few work opportunities for women in Iraq,
widows are forced to ask their children to beg or work in order to
survive.

Poverty, lack of food, shelter, and proper health care also
means children are especially affected by malnutrition and not
surprisingly, preventable diseases and infections have increased.
Growing up in an environment where violence is the norm is also
causing long-term psychological trauma and in a conflict-ridden
country, psychosocial support is not readily available.

“What is particularly worrying is that traditional coping
mechanisms in Iraq are not only being stretched to the limit but
are starting to break down,” says Rafiq Tschannen,
IOM’s Chief of Mission. “For a long time now, an
unbearable weight has been put on families hosting the displaced.
They cannot carry on like this for much longer.”

IOM is trying to lessen that suffering where it can. It is
providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to the most
vulnerable IDP families including food, water, and non-food items
such as blankets, mattresses, kitchen sets, stoves and hygiene
kits. More than 30,000 families have been helped in this way since
February, among them the families of both Ali and Mohammed.

With very few organizations being able to work in Iraq, such
assistance is critical. But the Organization doesn’t have
funds to continue doing this beyond another few months.

“We can’t stress enough what a difference it makes
for people to get this help at such a moment of crisis. Without it,
their future is unthinkable,” says Martin Ocaga, IOM
Iraq’s IDP Programme Manager.

Despite all the pain, hardship and suffering, the miracle is
that there is still a glimmer of hope and belief in a better future
among some Iraqis.

“I feel like there is the potential for democracy and
peace in Iraq,” says Omer. The first sign of that happening
is when displacement stops.

*All names have been changed for security purposes.