Syria: Not safe enough for Iraqi refugees to return - UNHCR chief

[Barrett808]

Source: IRIN

DAMASCUS, 14 February 2008 (IRIN) - The UN high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, said on 14 February that he did not believe it was safe enough for Iraqi refugees to be returning to their violence-plagued country.

"We have clear criteria for the promotion of returns - those criteria are not met by the situation in Iraq now," he said. "So we are not promoting returns to Iraq in the present circumstances because we do not believe the conditions are there for that to be possible on a meaningful scale."

The comments come in the middle of Guterres' week-long trip to the region, during which he has visited refugees and met government officials in Jordan and Syria. He moves on to Iraq next.

In recent months there have been reports that Iraqi refugees were beginning to return to their country but there are no clear figures on this and a trend has not been confirmed.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d52210ad99883e3f7ac2ed19efc7e390.htm