Numbers of Displaced Rise Inexorably
International Organization for Migration
Iraq - 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: rtschannen@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9486
E-mail: jpandya@iom.int
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
