UNHCR representative speaks on displaced families Sunday

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Iraq Claire Bourgeois is holding a press conference on Sunday to give a briefing on the conditions of displaced family in the war-torn country. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), although nearly 1.5 million internally-displaced persons (IDPs) returned to their original areas since 2003, still there are large numbers of them either unable or unwilling to return home. Iraqi government statistics said that there are still 1.3 million IDPs who have been forced to leave their home areas after the year 2006, representing more than 22,000 families. Iraq has witnessed several waves of internal displacement as a result of conflicts, sectarian violence and forced deportation of inhabitants linked to the former regime’s policies, the UNAMI report noted. Sectarian strife that erupted in the aftermath of the February 2006 Samarra bombings caused large-scale displacement nationwide.Baghdad and central Iraq provinces have been the most harmed areas in the countries as more than 1.6 million Iraqis were rendered homeless during the period between February 2006 and September 2008.