The number of Iraqis displaced by violence since the bombing in
Samarra in late February this year has now increased to nearly
190,000 in the 15 central and southern governorates with 9,000
people on average being displaced weekly.

IOM, which is monitoring and assessing newly displaced
populations in Iraq through its partners while working closely with
the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM), says the
displacement is increasingly looking like permanent settlement and
there is urgent need for shelter and employment solutions for these
families.

"Although host communities are welcoming the displaced who
usually are from the same religious community, there is
nevertheless a limited amount of shelter available and very few
opportunities to earn money. The vast majority of those displaced
this year are not planning to return to their former homes. If this
is not to become a chronic humanitarian crisis, we need to put in
place livelihood and integration programmes in addition to
providing emergency assistance such as food and water," said IOM
Chief of Mission for Iraq, Rafiq Tschannen.

Reasons for displacement are similar throughout the country.
People are being threatened because of their religious orientation
by direct threats to life, or because of abductions and
assassinations taking place around them for the same reason.

Anbar governorate has received the largest number of displaced
– just over 33,000 people, most of them from Baghdad. Nearly
two thirds of them are in Fallujah, Karma and Heet. Movement in all
15 governorates is largely following sectarian lines with Shias
moving to the south of the country and Sunnis to the centre.

The majority of the displaced are moving in with family and
friends or are trying to find rooms to rent, with others moving
into abandoned buildings. IOM estimates that about three percent of
the internally displaced people (IDPs) are moving into transitory
or long-term camps set up either by the MoDM or the Iraqi Red
Crescent.

Those with friends and families are living in crowded conditions
without sufficient resources such as food to meet everyone’s
needs, especially with prices for all basic necessities rising
constantly.  IDPs forced to rent rooms are finding that
increasing rental costs and high demand for space is making that a
difficult, if not an impossible option, while those living in
abandoned buildings face the constant threat that buildings will be
reclaimed and they will be removed without anywhere else to go
to. 

Other immediate needs among the displaced and vulnerable
communities are food and non-food items as well as water. Health
care is also an issue in some places as is legal assistance over
property claims. IOM has been carrying out emergency distributions
of food, non-food items and water assistance over the past few
months in most of the affected governorates with funding from the
US government. Needs assessments in Kerbala, Salah al-Din and
Tameem/Kirkuk have either just been carried out or are in the
process of being carried out with emergency distributions taking
place shortly after.

However, funding for such assistance is running low and with no
sign of either the violence or new displacement ending, the plight
of the displaced is likely to deteriorate as winter approaches.

For further information, please contact:

Rafiq Tschannen

IOM Chief of Mission for Iraq

E-mail: "mailto:rtschannen@iom.int">rtschannen@iom.int 

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int