IOM has received US$10 million from the US Department of State
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to meet the most
urgent needs of Iraqi returnees.

Working with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM)
and host communities, IOM is assisting returnees and local
residents without jobs or underemployed by providing information
and counseling; grants for the purchase of tools, equipment or
basic materials; and vocational and/or business training, to create
or expand small businesses or to find employment.

IOM is working with returnees in Baghdad, Ninewa, Diyala, Babyl,
Wassit and Missan governorates.  With the new funding from
PRM, IOM will assist at least 3,500 individuals in Baghdad,
Babylon, Diyala and Ninewa, and will expand the geographical
coverage to other governorates, namely Anbar, Basrah, Erbil and
Sulaymania. 

IOM monitors have identified some 52,000 post-2006 returnee
families in approximately 800 locations; with the majority
returning to Baghdad, and significant groups to Diyala and
Anbar.

Seventy-one per cent of returnees interviewed by IOM said they
had decided to return to their places of origin because of improved
security or a combination of improved security and difficult
conditions in their place of displacement.

Nationwide, returnees have told IOM monitors that their
immediate needs are food, fuel, and non-food items (such as
mattresses or cooking utensils), along with healthcare and legal
assistance.  In the long term, employment, shelter and
property restitution are the major concerns for returnee
families.

"Individual returnee families have widely differing needs. 
Many have come home to destroyed, damaged, or looted property,"
explains Mike Pillinger, Chief of the IOM Mission in Iraq.

Thirty-nine per cent of returnees interviewed by IOM reported
finding their home in poor or uninhabitable condition.  Others
have no job or a way to support their families. In Baghdad, 64 per
cent of heads of household interviewed by IOM are unemployed; 61%
in Diyala and 31% in Anbar.  In other cases health care
services or obtaining missing documents are priority issues.

MoDM and the Kurdish Regional Government's Directorate of
Displacement and Migration estimate that there are approximately
1.7 million post-2006 internally displaced Iraqis. 

There are an estimated number 2.8 million internally displaced
persons in Iraq. Some 1.6 million of them were displaced after the
bombing of the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra in February 2006. 
More than 1.5 million other Iraqis are living in neighbouring
countries.

IOM has also received funding for this programme from the
governments of Japan, Germany and Australia's International
Assistance Programme (AusAID).

Returnee reports, along with IOM's regular reporting on
displacement, including governorate profiles, bi-weekly updates,
tent camp updates, and yearly and mid-year reviews, are available
at "http://www.iomiraq.net/iomdmyear.html" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.iomiraq.net/iomdmyear.html.

For more information please contact:

Rex Alamban

IOM Amman

Tel: + 962-79-906-1779

E-mail: "mailto:ralamban@iom.int">ralamban@iom.int