Edward Wong
03/22/2007
The New York Times

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BAGHDAD, March 21 — About 160,000 Iraqis from outside the mountainous Kurdish north have moved there to flee a growing civil war, according to a draft of a report by an international group that tracks refugees and displaced people.

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That number is the first comprehensive figure for internal flight to Iraqi Kurdistan that has been released by any organization. It is also far higher than partial estimates previously disclosed by Kurdish officials.

The draft report, by Refugees International, which is based in Washington, says the Iraqis who have fled north face harsh living conditions. Inflation is rampant, and outsiders have few decent job opportunities.

Little aid is available for those or other internally displaced Iraqis, because the Iraqi and United States governments, as well as the United Nations, have failed to acknowledge the extent of the crisis, the report said.

The report’s number of 160,000 displaced Iraqis in Kurdistan is based on estimates by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.

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Two researchers for Refugees International recently conducted a two-week survey of conditions in Iraqi Kurdistan and found that “many of the internally displaced are struggling to survive, the victims of inattention, inadequate resources, regional politics and bureaucratic obstacles,” the report said.

The movement of Iraqis within and outside their homeland has produced the world’s fastest-growing populations of refugees and internally displaced people. The United Nations estimates that two million Iraqis have fled the country, which has a population of 26 million.

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The Refugees International report said Kurds from outside Kurdistan did not necessarily have an easy time moving into the region. Kurdish officials prefer that Kurds living in mixed areas like Kirkuk and Khanaqin remain there, so that the Kurdish regional government will later be able to make a legitimate claim on those places, the report said.

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Christians have had an easier time moving into Iraqi Kurdistan than Muslims, the report said. “Christians going to Dohuk receive financial assistance from the Kurdistan regional government of $85 per month, as well as land in their villages of origin and assistance to build houses,” the report said. The region’s finance minister is a Christian.

Over all, displaced people “who reach the Kurdish provinces must surmount difficulties in finding housing, shelter, employment and education for their children,” the report said. That conclusion was reached based on interviews conducted by the two researchers, Kristele Younes and Nir Rosen.

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The report recommends several ways to help alleviate the problems. It said that the United States and the international community should take urgent steps to ease the lives of the displaced and that the Iraqi government should devise a new ration card system that would allow people to receive food and fuel in their new locations.

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