Turkish refugees return home

A group of 15 Turkish refugees assisted by the UN's refugee agency returned to Turkey from northern Iraq on Tuesday in a convoy consisting of a minibus and two trucks which brought them to the Habur gate on the Turkish-Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey. "The 15 returnees were members of three families. After spending some time for registration, interviews, medical check at the border and custom clearance, one minibus and one truck with two families left Silopi for Uludere, their place of origins, and one truck to Nusaybin where they originated from," spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, Metin Corabatir told IRIN in Ankara on Wednesday. The refugee agency provided the returnees with hot meals at the border, and offered transportation to their villages of origin for those persons who were not met by relatives. This was the second group to return following the end of the second gulf War, war with a total of 30 assisted persons going back to Turkey this year. "UNHCR has no problem with access to the returnees, and the team in Silopi reported just that cooperation with the border authorities on the ground was very good," he maintained. The refugees had settled in northern Iraq's Dohuk province for 10 years and left their homeland as part of a larger group of about 15,000-16,000 people who fled Turkey in the early 1990s, because of the security situation in southeast of the country. "Most of them found themselves in the middle of the clashes between the Turkish security forces and outlawed Kurdish PKK," Corabatir explained. This latest movement brings the total number of Turkish refugees returning from Iraq with UNHCR help to 2,241 since 1998. Turkish refugees make up Iraq's third-largest refugee population. More than 9,000 live in Mahmour refugee camp in Ninawa governorate, south west of Arbil. Another estimated 3,700 Turkish refugees are locally integrated in northern Iraq’s Dohuk and Arbil governorates. The majority of these refugees started arriving in Iraq in the early 1990s. "Officials from UNHCR, Turkey and Iraq are working on a draft agreement that would establish a framework for the voluntary repatriation of a larger group and bring durable solutions to this refugee problem," he added.