IOM's latest Emergency Needs Assessment on the extent of internal displacement inside Iraq shows that improved security in Anbar governorate and parts of Baghdad has resulted in a decrease in the number of recently displaced families.
This is due to the fact that Anbar governorate has slowly stabilized since January, due in large part to the increased collaboration between the Anbar Rescue Council (ARC), a coalition of tribes formed in 2006, Iraqi police and the Multinational-National Force and Iraqi Forces.
According to this latest assessment, which covers the two weeks of September, the ARC is currently enforcing extremely strict checkpoint procedures inside and at the entrances of the cities, making movement within Anbar difficult.
The ARC is also deporting IDP families from the governorate if they suspect that any of the displaced men have links to the insurgents. It is also reported that Sunnis who do not have tribal links in Anbar, such as those from Basrah, are treated with hostility.
The assessment notes that Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, is receiving waves of returnees due to the security improvement in the city.
However, a curfew has been enforced in the city after the suicide explosion that killed Mr. Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of ARC. Any resumption of fighting in Anbar between insurgents and the ARC could lead to subsequent displacement.
In Baghdad city, the report notes that than 250 Sunni families were last week displaced from Hoor Rajab area in the Baghdad suburbs to Abo Disheer, a Shia area in Dora.
In a city were displaced families usually flee from mixed neighbourhoods to homogeneous neighbourhoods, this displacement is unusual because the IDPs are Sunni while the host community is Shia.
The newly displaced claim that they fled after refusing to cooperate with Al-Qaeda. Shia families in this area are reportedly supporting and even housing the new Sunni IDPs.
Due to the extremely high number of IDPs in Baghdad, monitors continue to frequently encounter large groups of especially vulnerable families.
In the past two weeks, 73 families were identified living in Al-Sadr city in Kasra-wa-Atash. They are living together with poor urban families in mud shelters in an unsanitary environment and are in urgent need of potable water, food, and non-food items.
In other areas, such as Diyala, Qadissiyah, and Salah al-Din, increased instability is resulting in continued displacement.
In Dahuk, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Kerbala, Najaf, Qadissiya, Babylon, Thi-Qar, Basrah, and Muthanna, governorate authorities continue to restrict IDP entry and registration.
The report finds that reasons for displacement are similar throughout Iraq: many of the newly-displaced are fleeing due to sectarian violence, continued military operations, and generalized crime.
As highlighted in previous reports, the majority of the displaced rent substandard shelter or is staying with friends or family, placing additional burdens on host communities. Others are moving into abandoned buildings, and a small percentage temporarily resides in camps. Throughout the country, insecurity continues to severely restrict children's access to school.
The estimated number of displaced since the bombing of the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra on 22 February 2006 is 1,058,424 individuals. This figure, combined with the 1, 2 million individuals who were internally displaced before 22 February, results in a total of over 2, 25 million IDPs in Iraq to date.
IOM, which has been leading emergency distributions among displaced and vulnerable populations inside Iraq, has assisted more than 320,000 people since late February 2006. Since 2003, the Organization has helped five million IDPs and vulnerable people by providing emergency food and water supplies and implementing community assistance projects in health, education, sanitation and income generation.
For further information, please contact Dana Graber Ladek, Iraq Displacement Specialist at IOM Iraq, Tel: + 962 79 611 1759, Email: dgraber@iom-iraq.net