Displacement, Emigration and Uncertainty in Iraq: A Policy Debate

This is a policy brief based on a policy debate held at the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) on 18 February 2018. The debate was organized primarily to discuss the findings and policy recommendations put forth in MERI’s latest study, titled “Displacement-Emigration-Return: Understanding Uncertainty in Iraq.” Participants included senior diplomats from the Dutch, British, French and Kuwaiti Consulates; senior officials from the International Organisation on Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCCC); experts from local and international non-governmental organisations and academics and fellows from MERI and other research institutions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

The study and the participants both called for development of robust policies that:

• Consider displacement in Iraq as a chronic condition, not a sudden crisis;
• Recognize the recurrence and diversity of the displacement phenomenon;
• Increase investment in areas of return;
• Empower Community Resources Center to provide needed services for returnees;
• Include displacement in broader physical and social reconstruction plan for Iraq.