Iraq: Iraqi Refugees and IDPs: From Humanitarian Intervention to Durable Solutions

Contributions on Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) prepared for this project examine the humanitarian response to internal and external displacement following the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003. Humanitarian intervention has more specifically focused on people forced to flee as a result of widespread insecurity and sectarian conflict in Iraq between early 2006 and mid-2007. It is important to mention at the outset that displacement has been a long-term feature of Iraq. Previous episodes of internal displacement resulted from policies of population engineering and repression by the Baathist regime that directly affected as many as one million people. Before April 2003, up to 500,000 Iraqi refugees were hosted in Iran. In the 1990s, Jordan was a transit country for several hundred thousand Iraqis, mostly Arabs from Baghdad and the central region, fleeing the UN-imposed embargo and persecution by the regime. Iraqi Kurds and some Christians used Turkey as a stepping stone to Europe or more distant asylum countries. Syria hosted up to 70,000 Iraqi political opponents and their families, both Kurds and Arabs.