U.N. provides relief package for Iraqi refugees returning home

A United Nations envoy announced an $11.4-million relief package Tuesday to help the Iraqi government cope with a steady flow of refugees who have started trickling back into Iraq, but cautioned that security remained too precarious for a mass return.

Seizing on an opportunity to show progress, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s government has encouraged some of the estimated 2 million people who fled the country to return home, citing a recent drop in violence. It has sent buses to collect families in neighboring Syria and given them each about $820 to help them resettle in Iraq.

There have been conflicting accounts of the number of refugees who have returned. Iraq’s migration minister, Abdul- Samad Rahman Sultan, put the figure Tuesday at about 30,000. He also said that of the estimated 2 million others who were internally displaced, about 10,000 had returned to their homes.

Most of the returning refugees are middle-class families who exhausted their savings in Syria and other countries, U.N. Special Representative Staffan de Mistura said at a news conference. But he could not confirm the government’s figures.

The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq has helped the government draft a plan for coping with the flow and is making the initial contribution of $11.4 million in food and other relief for the 5,000 most vulnerable families -- about 30,000 people, De Mistura said.

“This is not a massive return, and the UNHCR [Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] is not recommending a massive return in view of the fragility of the situation,” De Mistura said. “But at the same time, the flow is taking place, and we need to show together that there is a proper response.”

U.S. officials have expressed concern that a too rapid return could reignite fighting in neighborhoods that have been taken over by Sunni or Shiite Muslims.

Sultan said the government was not encouraging all Iraqi refugees to return, only those who were struggling in countries where they have been unable to obtain permission to work.

“I am not trying to defend the government, or accelerate the return of families, but I want the truth to come out that the situation is 90% stable,” he said.

The Iraqi government has allocated $100 million to help returning families, in addition to $10 million in food aid, he said. Emergency funds also were available, but he said the government would continue to need help.

De Mistura said U.N. agencies would launch an emergency appeal in January.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com