Iraq's refugees head home

By Pam O'Toole
BBC News

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has started the process of refugee returns to Iraq, with the departure from Saudi Arabia of the first organised convoy since the fall of President Saddam Hussein.

Some refugees are keen to return

A total of 10 buses and trucks carrying more than 240 refugees and their belongings left the remote Rafha camp on Tuesday night and are due to arrive in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday morning.

They will be followed by further small convoys every 10 days from Saudi Arabia. Small return convoys from Iran are expected to start in early August.

It is the symbolic first step in what is expected to be a lengthy and cautious process.

Baghdad out of bounds

The first convoy is relatively straightforward as these refugees have volunteered go home to Iraq.

Some of them began agitating to return soon after the fall of President Saddam Hussein, even staging sit-ins in their remote desert camp to press their case.

Security in Baghdad is still too poor for refugees to return

But given continuing insecurity in some areas - particularly Baghdad - many other Iraqis are less keen to rush back.

UNHCR admits that the situation is not yet conducive to large scale return.

Its High Commissioner, Ruud Lubbers, visited Iraq and the surrounding region last week.

Afterwards he told the BBC that he had virtually ruled out returning refugees to Baghdad for the time being.

In other areas, UNHCR staff would assess where it was possible, and safe, for people to return.

The agency says it believes that up to half a million refugees could eventually seek its help to return to Iraq.

But Mr Lubbers stressed that this would be a very gradual process and that he did not expect to see substantial returns until next year.

The High Commissioner again called on European countries not to forcibly return people to Iraq for the time being.

But he said he would shortly give European governments the green light to start registering Iraqi asylum seekers for a voluntary return process sometime in the future.