May 30, 2012
New measures to integrate returning Iraqi refugees
Iraq is swamped with refugees coming home following years of internal or external exile.
Government and U.N. reports estimated that up to 4 million Iraqis have been on the move since the 2003-U.S. invasion.
Two million of them opted to flee the upsurge in violence that following the invasion and two million more were said to be internally displaced.
The relative quiet the country has seen in the past few years has encouraged hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people to return to home towns and villages.
The tranquility at home and violence in neighboring Syria, which more than a million of fleeing Iraqis had taken as a refuge, has forced many of them to pack and return home.
But for some the journey home is even more painful and demanding than the decision to go on exile.
Many Iraqis had sold property and belongings and started new lives in Syria. Now they suddenly see their dreams of a quiet life there being shattered by mounting violence.
The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration says it is doing its best to help to accommodate the returnees and have them integrated into the society.
Minister Dindar Douski says he has secured funds that will help his ministry dole out grants of up to $3000 for each returning family.
He said more than 65,000 families have returned home and many of them were in need of urgent help.
Douski said his ministry was coordinating with the Syrian authorities to work out a smooth return for Iraqi families willing to come home.
But Douski said his ministry was facing problems due to decisions by certain European countries to force Iraqi refugees without resident permits to return home.
He said he was in touch with these countries and urged them not to force any Iraqi to return home against their wishes.
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