U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2002 - Iraq

There were more than 128,100 refugees and about 700,000 internally displaced persons in Iraq in 2001. The refugees included about 23,700 from Iran and 13,100 from Turkey (in both cases, mostly Kurds), about 90,000 Palestinians, and about 1,300 refugees of other nationalities, including Eritreans (573), Somalis (313), Sudanese (224) and Syrians (101).

The estimated 600,000 internally displaced persons in the three northern governorates of Dohuk, Erbil, and Suleymaniyah included not only long-term internally displaced persons and persons displaced by Kurdish factional infighting, but also at least 100,000 persons, mostly Kurds, Assyrians, and Turkomans, more recently expelled from central-government-controlled Kirkuk and surrounding districts in the oil-rich region bordering the Kurdish-controlled north. At least another 100,000 persons were internally displaced elsewhere in Iraq, mostly in the southeastern marshlands.

Between 1 and 2 million Iraqis estimated to be living outside Iraq were believed to have a well-founded fear of persecution if they returned, although only about 300,000 had any formal recognition as refugees or asylum seekers in 2001. Some 203,000 Iraqi refugees were living in Iran, while 5,100 Iraqi refugees remained in the Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia at year's end. During the year, some 41,238 Iraqis applied for asylum in Western industrialized countries, mostly in Europe. The largest number, 17,708, applied for asylum in Germany, followed by the United Kingdom (6,805), and Sweden (6,206). Many, such as the 250,000 to 300,000 Iraqis in Jordan and about 40,000 Iraqis in Syria, remained undocumented and were not formally recognized – or protected – as refugees.

During the year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assisted in the resettlement of 646 Iranian refugees from Iraq to other countries.

General Conditions

The international community maintained increasingly leaky economic sanctions against Iraq for a twelfth year. Although surreptitious violations of the sanctions and humanitarian exceptions through the oil-for-food program improved Iraq's economic situation during the year, vulnerable elements of Iraqi society continued to suffer disproportionately the effects of the sanctions.

During the year, Russia and other members of the UN Security Council blocked an attempt by the United Kingdom and the United States to amend the sanctions regime; the draft resolution would have allowed Iraq to increase its imports of civilian goods, but also would have tightened controls on imports that could be used for military purposes.

A May-June 2000 report jointly issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) found that about 800,000 children under the age of five were chronically malnourished and that ten percent of children under age five in Baghdad, Kerbala, and Diyala indicated "wasting" (low weight for height). In contrast, the three Kurdish-controlled northern governorates appeared to be enjoying relative prosperity, both as a result of receiving a UN-mandated 13 percent of all oil-for-food revenues and "taxes" the Kurds impose on the lucrative smuggling operations across the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Internal Displacement in Central Iraq

In 2001, Baghdad continued its systematic efforts to "Arabize" the predominantly Kurdish districts of Kirkuk, Khanaqin, and Sinjar at the edge of government-controlled Iraq near the Kurdish-controlled zone. To solidify control of this strategically and economically vital oil-rich region, the government expelled Kurds, Assyrians, and Turkomans – at times, entire communities – from these cities and surrounding areas. At the same time, the government offered financial and housing incentives to Sunni Arabs to persuade them to move to Kirkuk, Mosul, and other cities targeted for Arabization. New Arab settlements were constructed on expropriated Kurdish land holdings.

Under the Arabization program, known as "nationality correction," the government forces ethnic minority civil servants to sign a form "correcting" their nationality. Persons who refuse to sign the forms – for example, a Kurd who declines to "correct" his nationality and list himself as an Arab rather than a Kurd – are subject to expulsion to northern Iraq or the no-fly zone in the south. During the year, Kurdish and Turkoman families in Mosul and Kirkuk were reportedly expelled to northern Iraq for failure to sign the forms.

Various reports indicate that more than 100,000 persons were expelled from Kirkuk and surrounding areas between 1991 and the end of 2001. In June, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two Kurdish political parties that control the semi-autonomous Kurdish zone of northern Iraq, estimated the number of persons displaced from government-controlled areas to the Kurdish zone to be closer to 200,000, although this figure could not be independently confirmed.

In September, the UN special rapporteur on Iraq reported that forced deportations of non-Arab families living in the Kirkuk area were continuing, but offered no details on the scale of expulsions. Various press reports also indicated that the Iraqi government was pressing forward with its "Arabization" campaign in 2001, but provided little information on the number of people actually displaced during the year.

Most expellees moved north to the Kurdish-controlled governorates where they had relatives and the support of persons sharing their language and culture. However, they paid a price: those going north could not take their belongings. Few victims of internal deportation could sell their properties and belongings or receive a fair price for them in the brief time before expulsion. Kurds were forbidden to sell their homes to other Kurds or non-Arabs. The few who opted to move to predominantly Shi'a southern Iraq were permitted to take their belongings. In 2001, some were reportedly expelled to the western desert of Anbar governorate.

Northern Iraq

Many residents of northern Iraq have been displaced multiple times. In October 2000, the UN Center for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat) estimated that 805,000 people remained internally displaced in the north, although this estimate too could not be verified. No accurate estimates exist for the number of people who remained internally displaced at the end of 2001. Many continued to live in tents or with other families, but it was also clear that returns within northern Iraq were occurring, and that some of the 4,500 Kurdish villages destroyed by Baghdad forces during the "Anfal" campaign of the late 1980s were being rebuilt and reoccupied.

Based on conservative estimates, approximately 100,000 of the displaced in the north are former residents of the government-controlled regions of Kirkuk, Khanaqin, and Sinjar who have been expelled into the north in recent years, including in 2001. Roughly another half-million Kurds whose original homes either were in northern Iraq – many of which were destroyed during the "Anfal" campaign – or who fled to the north in 1991 remained displaced during the year. Some were unable to return to their original homes in the north because of the impasse between the Kurdish political parties, while others were deterred by poor security along the border areas and lack of resources to rebuild destroyed homes and villages. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) estimates the number still displaced in northern Iraq at approximately 600,000. During the year, many of the displaced reportedly were still living in tents or in open, unheated public buildings and remained dependent on humanitarian assistance.

The economy in northern Iraq continued to improve in 2001, and the Kurdish population appeared to be faring better economically than the Iraqis to the south. Health and nutrition in the northern governorates showed improvement, with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reporting that malnutrition rates among children under age 5 dropped from 18.3 percent in 1999 to 14.5 percent in 2000.

A 1998 peace agreement signed between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), formally ending four years of factional fighting, held through 2001, although northern Iraq remained essentially split between the two parties. The KDP controlled Erbil and Dohuk governorates, while the PUK controlled Suleymaniyah. Nevertheless, relations between the two parties improved somewhat during the year, allowing for increased trade and movement of persons between the areas under each party's control. The PUK and KDP also began implementation of an October 1999 agreement that called for the return of displaced people within northern Iraq to their places of origin; between June and October, some 1,300 families reportedly returned to their homes in Erbil, Dohuk, and Suleymaniyah.

Despite relative calm between the two main Kurdish factions, northern Iraq remained volatile in 2001, as the Iraqi government became increasingly active in the north and each Kurdish faction battled other parties. The Iraqi military reportedly reinforced its troops south of Erbil in June, and, according to the KDP, subjected some 30 villages just inside the border of the Kurdish-controlled zone to repeated artillery bombardment, resulting in the displacement of village residents. Fighting between government troops and the PUK broke out in September, and in October, government troops reportedly moved into the Kurdish zone, occupying a village southwest of Erbil. Several bomb blasts targeting buildings used by international and nongovernmental organizations in the north also were attributed to Iraqi government agents.

In September and October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that clashes between the PUK and Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of God) – a militant Islamic group based in northeastern Iraq that in September declared a holy war on northern Iraqi secular political parties – resulted in at least 200 deaths, mostly of combatants. The PUK and KDP also battled the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish opposition group in Turkey with bases in PUK territory in northern Iraq. Turkish armed forces, which reportedly waged incursions into northern Iraq in pursuit of the PKK during 2000 and 2001, further complicated the security situation.

Southern Iraq

The Iraqi government has long been openly hostile to the Marsh Arabs, or Maadan, people living in the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in a triangle-shaped region formed by the cities of Amarah, Basra, and Nasiriyah. Following the suppression of the 1991 Shi'a uprising in southern Iraq, many opponents of the Baghdad regime fled to the marshes, and the Iraqi government intensified a pacification campaign it had been directing toward the Maadan since 1989.

Since 1991, government forces have burned and shelled villages, and built dams to divert water from the marshes to depopulate the area. Although there are no reliable estimates of the number of displaced people in southern Iraq, USCR conservatively estimates that about 100,000 are internally displaced from and within the southern region.

Following the February 1999 assassination of Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al Sadr, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shi'a population and a vocal critic of the central government, there were reports of widespread rioting, as well as allegations of summary executions and arrests. At the time, the Iraqi authorities also reportedly burned houses as collective punishment against rebellious villages and neighborhoods. According to reports by the UN special rapporteur and Amnesty International, repression of Shi'a clergy and their followers continued in 2001.

Very little information was available in 2001 regarding displacement of Shi'a villagers in southern Iraq, as a news blackout was imposed on the region.

Refugees from Turkey

About 13,100 Kurdish refugees from Turkey, most of whom arrived in 1994, remained in Iraq in 2001. After the 1997 closure of the Atrush camp, the camp's occupants split into two groups. The larger faction, numbering 9,300, moved to the Makhmour camp in Iraqi government-controlled territory. Another 3,800 Kurdish refugees from Turkey were living in five local settlements in Dohuk governorate and one settlement in Erbil on land provided by the KDP.

In 2001, 38 refugees voluntarily returned to Turkey with UNHCR assistance. Since 1997, about 2,200 have repatriated. Assisted by UNHCR, the refugees pass through the Habur border gate and stay temporarily in tents near the border until they can be returned to their places of origin.

Iranian Refugees in Government-Controlled Iraq

Some 19,000 Iranian refugees resided in government-controlled Iraq in 2001. Most of the Iranians (12,150) lived in the Al-Tash camp in western Iraq, about 70 miles (110 km) from Baghdad.

UNHCR reported that the governments of Iran and Iraq signed a bilateral voluntary repatriation agreement in 2001, paving the way for the return of Iranian refugees in Iraq. Although no Iranian refugees repatriated during the year, several thousand reportedly expressed their wish to UNHCR to repatriate and were expected to do so in 2002.

During the year, UNHCR assisted in the resettlement of refugees from government-controlled Iraq, focusing on refugees in the Al-Tash camp. During the year, 646 refugees, mostly Iranians, were resettled in Sweden, Finland, Canada, and New Zealand.

In Al-Tash, described as a slum, refugees were not permitted to work, and their movement was restricted. All of the refugees at Al-Tash are Iranians and most are Kurds, although the camp also includes a mix of Persians and Arabs from Ahwaz Province. While the great majority of camp residents are Sunni Muslim, more than 1,000 camp residents belong to the Ahl-e-Haq religious minority. Another 7,000 Iranian Ahwazi refugees who fled southern Iran during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s lived in Misan, Kumeit, and Basra Governorates in southern Iraq.

Iranian Refugees in Northern Iraq

About 4,700 Iranian Kurdish refugees resided in northern Iraq in 2001. The majority were believed to be ex-peshmergas (guerrillas) of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.

Conditions in northern Iraq remained uncertain for Iranian refugees in 2001. Although no killings were reported during the year, unknown assailants have assassinated about 300 Iranians in recent years prior to 2001. The refugees claim that agents of the Iranian regime in northern Iraq are responsible for the killings.

Resettlement from northern Iraq remained limited in 2001. UNHCR assisted in the resettlement of 107 Iranian refugees from northern Iraq during the year, a marked decline from the 632 Iranian refugees resettled from northern Iraq in 1999, but slightly more than the 41 resettled in 2000. In 1999, the Iraqi government announced that it did not regard Iranians in northern Iraq as refugees and called upon UNHCR to suspend resettlement. Difficulties in obtaining exit clearances for Iranians in northern Iraq has accounted, in part, for the drop in resettlement during the past two years.

Because of poor security and the lack of resettlement opportunities for Iranian refugees in northern Iraq, between 800 and 900 left for Turkey in 2000 and 2001, where they applied for refugee status with UNHCR in the hope of resettling to third countries.

Other Groups

Some 91,300 refugees of other nationalities were in Iraq in 2001, about 90,000 of whom were Palestinians. Information on their living conditions was not available. UNHCR had also registered 573 Eritreans, 313 Somalis, and 224 Sudanese. During the year, 84 Syrians, 18 Afghans, and 4 Sudanese applied for refugee status with UNHCR in Iraq.

Iraqi Refugees Outside Iraq

According to a leaked, unpublished Iraqi government report published by a London-based Arabic newspaper in March 2000, the government estimated that 1.5 million Iraqis sought asylum outside Iraq in the preceding decade. The largest recognized group, some 203,000, lived in Iran; another 5,084 were living in the Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia.

In June 1999, Iraq announced an amnesty for certain Iraqis who had been expelled for specific periods of time or who had departed the country illegally, including university teachers who had left the country without exit permission, or who had not returned home after representing Iraq in official delegations. In November 1999, the government announced a new law that imposes prison terms of up to ten years on persons attempting to leave the country illegally.

UNHCR recorded 1,727 voluntary repatriations of Iraqi refugees to government-controlled Iraq from Iran and 240 returns from Saudi Arabia in 2001. UNHCR did not promote these repatriations, however, telling would-be returnees that the agency could not monitor or guarantee their safety upon return. Although UNHCR reported a breakthrough in negotiations with the Iraqi government at the end of 2001 whereby the government agreed to allow the agency to monitor repatriations, the safety of returning Iraqi refugees – and by extension the prudence of promoting returns – remained in doubt at year's end. In 2001 and past years, USCR has received reports of the arrests, disappearances, and deaths under mysterious circumstances of some returnees, although these reports could not be independently confirmed.