Returns Erratic as Authorities Clamp Down on Illegal IDP Settlements in Iraq
A recent assessment carried out by Iraq's Ministry of Displacement
and Migration (MoDM) and IOM shows that returns throughout the
country remain erratic as increasing numbers of destitute,
internally displaced families risk being evicted from public
buildings or land they illegally occupy because they have no other
place to go to.
In the southern governorate of Muthanna, local authorities have
recently issued an order to remove all illegal collective
settlements within two weeks, regardless of whether the squatting
families are internally displaced or host community. In the Al
Tanak neighbourhood, this decision will affect dozens of
impoverished families who are living in mud houses on public land.
According to the report, eviction orders are sometimes opposed
by displaced families who feel they simply have no other place to
go. In Basra's Jenaina neighbourhood, IOM monitors report that
families who were squatting in a former military intelligence
building successfully staged a rally to protest against their
eviction order.
In other governorates, security concerns continue to drive local
authorities to search for and evict displaced families originating
from neighbouring governorates. This is particularly affecting
families from Diyala and Anbar who have been displaced to Salah
al-Din governorate.
The report, however, notes that the Prime Minister's Office,
Iraqi Forces, or the Multi-National Force-Iraq have facilitated
returns to safer areas in Baghdad, while others are returning of
their own accord within Diyala and Anbar governorates.
Improved security and reconciliation among various factions have
led to more than 1,000 displaced families returning to Baghdad's
Rasheed sub district. In Sadr City, only a few families have
returned after recent clashes despite an improvement in the
security situation due to the recent truce between Shia militiamen
and government forces.
According to the report, returnees throughout the country face a
chronic shortage of facilities, with almost half of the families
saying they only had intermittent access to government food
rations, which remain largely insufficient to meet their needs.
Access to potable water, education, health care and medicines also
remains problematic, particularly for poor
families.
More than 2.7 million Iraqis are now internally displaced, more
than 1.5 million of them since February 2006 when the bombing of
the Al-Askari shrine in Samara triggered a new displacement crisis
in the country.
To access the report, please go to
"paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.iom-iraq.net/Library/IOM%20Iraq%20Displacement%20Assessments%20&%20Statistics%2015%20May%2008.pdf"
target="_blank" title="">this link.
For more information, please contact:
Dana Graber Ladek
IOM Iraq
Tel: +962 79 611 1759
E-mail:
"mailto:dgraber@iom-iraq.net">dgraber@iom-iraq.net