Mass repatriation of Iraqi refugees ruled out: UN

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will put the priority on small scale returns this year aimed mainly at relieving the refugee burden in neighbouring countries, UNHCR Iraq envoy Dennis McNamara said after his second mission to Iraq in a month.

He will urge Britain, France, Germany and other European countries, which want to start the repatriation of tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers they host, to be patient at a meeting in Geneva next Monday.

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"I don't think refugee returns to Iraq are going to be a massive, large scale exercise this year, it is I hope a process where we'll lay the ground work in 2003 for larger scale returns in 2004," McNamara said.

He highlighted worsening security in Iraq, particularly around Baghdad, disputes over property in northern Kurdish areas, poor services and the country's dependency on aid, as well as the destabilising impact of returns on the volatile political situation.

The situation is "highly tense, volatile and dangerous" McNamara said after his second two week trip around the country, and meetings with the US-led provisional authority, its head Paul Bremer, as well as neighbouring countries.

With attacks on US and British troops, sabotage of water and electricity supplies and travel restrictions, "Iraq is not post-conflict, it is a continuing conflict at low level," McNamara insisted.

"We must make the first returns work, because if the first ones come unstuck then the whole return movement, as we have learned over many decades, will likely be blocked," he added.