The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has revised downwards the number of Iraqi refugees it has registered in Syria.
“In 2010 we issued revised figures for the number of registered Iraqi refugees based on the verification of their presence in Syria throughout 2009,” said Wafa Amr, a spokesperson for UNHCR in Damascus.
Those refugees who did not make contact with the office for more than four months and did not pick up food vouchers for two months had their files deactivated, according to UNHCR.
More than a quarter of the Iraqi population registered in Syria was deregistered – 58,000 files were deactivated – leaving 165,493 registered refugees at end-April this year. However, if a deregistered refugee re-approaches the agency, UNHCR says their file “may be reactivated after an in-depth assessment”.
UNHCR attributes the revision of its numbers to “returns, deaths and departures for third countries”.
Since the start of the war, UNHCR Syria has registered more than 260,000 Iraqi refugees. UNHCR has assisted 1,200 refugees to return, while around 21,000 Iraqis have left the country without the agency’s assistance.
Read more of the story here at the IRIN news service:
SYRIA: Number of Iraqi refugees revised downwards
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