There are nearly 4 million refugees and displaced people in Iraq and surrounding countries Some 1.9 million Iraqis are currently displaced inside the country and up to 2 million others have fled abroad Of up to two million Iraqis who have fled abroad, the greatest number are hosted by Syria, with 1.2 million, and Jordan, with 750,00, but there are also an estimated 100,000 in Egypt, 54,000 in Iran, 40,000 in Lebanon and 10,000 in Turkey, according to the UN Refugee Agency

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CERF provides assistance to IDPs in Iraq 

Emergency distribution for IDPs. An internally displaced woman carrying her family package. [Photo: IOM]

2 April 2007: The UN estimates that Iraq has over 1.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many Iraqis were displaced prior to the fall of the previous regime in 2003. Between 2003 and 2005, more than 300,000 Iraqis had returned home to begin rebuilding their lives. - But the trend has now dramatically reversed, particularly since the Samarra bombing in February 2006. About 750,000 people are estimated to have fled their homes since that incident, with up to 50,000 more displaced each month.

Even if a Public Distribution System (PDS) is in place in many places of Iraq, IDPs often lack access to it – at least during the first several months as they wait for their PDS cards to be issued.

IOM partners consulted the IDPs to determine what assistance they required and will be providing various Non-Food Items for their immediate use. [Photo: IOM]

With the CERF grant of US$ 3.5 million, IOM and its humanitarian partners are providing emergency distributions of food and non-food items to 15,000 vulnerable IDP and host families in five governorates (Babylon, Diyala, Kerbala, Ninewa and Wassit) that have received the heaviest influx of displaced persons since the violence resulting from the 22 February 2006 bombing of Al Askaria Shrine in Samarra.

 [Last Update: 17 April 2007]

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CERF in Iraq 2008

CERF in Iraq 2006