Housing projects for returning refugees

 

Azzaman, August 17, 2005

 

The government has endorsed plans to build three major housing complexes for Iraqi refugees who have opted to return home.

 

A statement by the Ministry of Displacement and Migration said the three housing projects should be completed “in the near future.”

 

The ministry was established in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion which ousted the regime of former leader Saddam Hussein.

 

The government estimates that about four million Iraqis have fled the country many of them during Saddam Hussein’s three-decade rule.

 

When Saddam Hussein was toppled, many Iraqi refugees, particularly those in Saudi Arabia and Iran, returned home.

 

Many others, whether in Europe, North America or Australia, also expressed a desire to return but had to shelve plans due to mounting insecurity and the upsurge in violent and insurgent attacks.

 

The ministry’s main job is to look after the returnees and finding proper accommodation for them is a daunting task.

 

Displacement and Migration Minister Suhaila Abduljaafar has urged the government to increase her ministry’s allocations to meet the returnees’ urgent needs.

 

Abduljaafar has been strongly lobbying the lawmakers drafting the new constitution to include a paragraph under which refugees will be entitled “to regain the rights usurped from them by the former regime.”

 

Refugees returning home are supplied with special identification cards that entitle them “to all the privileges and facilities provided by the ministry,” she said.

 

In the statement, the minister did not spell out the nature of these privileges or the cost of the new housing projects.