BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi forces will begin evacuating from next week squatters illegally occupying the Baghdad homes of people who fled at the height of the sectarian conflict, officials said on Saturday.
The move is designed to encourage people who are the legal owners of their homes to return, said Daniel Endres, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"This measure will certainly increase the return but it is a process that will take time because people want to see first how it turns out," he told AFP.
Iraqi military spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said on Wednesday that the squatters, who themselves are refugees from other parts of the country or from Baghdad itself, have until Sunday to vacate the occupied houses.
"Iraqi forces will be on alert from September 2 to evacuate the homes of the displaced families," said Atta. "We cannot postpone this decision."
The issue of displaced people has become a crisis in Baghdad. A recent study by Iraq's ministry of displaced and migrants said that of the 212,063 families displaced across Iraq, 43 percent are from the capital.
"I do not expect people to return in large numbers but it is certainly a positive step because one of the main concerns of these people is that others are occupying their homes," Endres said.
Of the 91,640 displaced families currently staying in Baghdad, or 556,700 people, a majority 56 percent are from the city itself -- people who left their neighbourhoods in the capital after threats from gangs in rival communities.
According to an order issued by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, squatters who fail to vacate the houses could face three years' imprisonment and a fine. Those occupying official buildings face up to 10 years in jail.
"Seventy percent of the occupied public buildings are held by militias," said Endres.
"It is not just people who are occupying. In some regions, the militias took control of whole districts and leased it to refugees" from other areas of Iraq.
Baghdad is offering a one-off payment of one million Iraqi dinars (833 dollars) to each returning family.
For the past six months the govrnment has also granted a monthly rent of 300 dollars to those currently occupying homes in Baghdad, given that these squatters are themselves displaced.
Many returning families complain that people occupying their homes refuse to leave, and Iraqi forces are trying to resolve ownership disputes before they start taking action against the squatters.
The massive displacement of people that began with the outbreak of sectarian violence in February 2006 has eased since late 2007, especially in Baghdad.
These days one in 10 families who had fled their homes in Baghdad is returning, Atta said on Wednesday.
He said any attempt to stop such families returning after September 2 would be considered a "terrorist attack."
"There are terrorist groups who do not want the families to return and are preventing them from doing so. The government and the army are closely tracking such cases."
Atta said if the families return it would also improve the security situation, since empty houses often become terrorist hideouts.
Last week the son of Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi was arrested after he was accused of placing a bomb in the house of a family who had fled from Baghdad's Al-Adel district.
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