On July 16th the Iraqi government announced incentives for IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) to return home. Judy reported on this in an earlier post here, and now we are hearing some of the details.
NGO’s* and their reporter friends have been saying we broke it (Iraq) and now we need to fix it by bringing thousands of Iraqis to the US. So it is welcome news to see that the Iraqi government is taking steps to resettle its own people. Note in this story that there are incentives not only for internally displaced but for displaced people who have left Iraq to return as well.
BAGHDAD, 20 July 2008 (IRIN) – The Iraqi government has adopted a number of measures aimed at encouraging the return of over four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees to their homes, a government statement has said.
The most significant measure is the one-off payment of 1.8 million Iraqi dinars (about US$1,500) to families who are illegally occupying the houses of other displaced families from a different sect and who want to return to their homes, the statement said on 16 July.
The aim is to help those families to rent other places, the statement said.
All IDPs or refugees willing to return to their houses will be paid one million Iraqi dinars (about $840), it said.
Another measure stipulates an additional monthly payment of 150,000 Iraqi dinars (about $145) to each internally displaced family which has not yet returned to its home. The payment will be for three months while the family is still displaced.
Other measures include helping Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries with free airline tickets if they choose to return home, the free shipment of their belongings, and compensation for damaged property.
“These decisions are designed to facilitate and expedite the return of displaced families to their houses to boost the peaceful coexistence among Iraq’s different components in mixed areas,” the statement said.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Of these, about 2.2 million are living as refugees in neighbouring countries – mostly Syria and Jordan – while the remainder are IDPs.
* NGO’s (volags) need refugee numbers entering the US because that is how they are paid, by the head. And, since this is also an opportunity to whack the Bush Administration over the war, the issue is a ‘twofer’ for them.
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