Jeff Severns Guntzel, Electronic Iraq, 21 October 2008
DAMASCUS (IRIN) – Several hundred Iraqis returned home from Syria this week and last, but thousands more continue to register with the UN in Damascus to receive vital food aid, underscoring the hardship faced by the huge refugee community.
Some 150 Iraqi refugees flew back to Baghdad on 15 October on a flight paid for by the Iraqi government, the first such assisted return since November 2007, in a move officials said was made possible by improved security in Iraq.
But the latest figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), showed that in the three months to the end of September some 13,000 Iraqi refugees had newly registered with the agency, allowing them to receive financial and material support.