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Balkanized Homecoming
Iraqis carry their luggage through Baghdad after returning from Syria this month. Many refugees come back to find their houses occupied or ransacked, and their neighborhoods transformed into sectarian strongholds.
(By Wathiq Khuzaie -- Getty Images)
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"If you are in Damascus," Siri said, "you are tempted to say, 'Many families [returned] last week; maybe it's time for us, as well.' A snowball effect can be created."
The Iraqi government appears divided on whether to encourage the returns. The Damascus bus convoy was reportedly organized by the Ministry of Defense, although apparently it was not coordinated with the Transportation Ministry, which scrambled to find transportation into Iraq for the refugees when Syrian buses left them at the border and refused to travel farther.
While the convoys have been put on hold for the moment, state television has continued to run commercials advocating return. Iraqi officials in Damascus grumble that U.N. emergency relief for refugees there is keeping them from going home.
"The government is basically doing this to restore confidence in themselves," said Herve Richard-Thomas of the International Medical Corps, a U.S.-based relief organization working on humanitarian issues in Iraq. "It's partly because Baghdad is safer right now, but the biggest reason is so that they can look good and show that they're doing something."
But the government ministry charged with caring for the returnees has been more cautious. "In reality, the ministry cannot absorb a return on that scale," Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman said at a news conference this month. "If the influx is huge, then neither the ministry nor the entire government can handle it."
Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan and special correspondent Zaid Sabah contributed to this report.
