BAGHDAD, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- An international migration group says Iraqi displacement is on the rise and urgent emergency supplies are needed to ease the suffering of those seeking safety.
The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said in a statement Friday that some 18,000 people in 15 central and southern Iraqi provinces have been displaced in the past three weeks alone.
It said in the past year that 290,000 were displaced from these areas, while an additional 84,000 have "been forced to leave their homes in Iraq's three northern governorates," in reference to the autonomous Kurdish region.
The IOM said there are no signs that further displacement will end in the war-torn nation and estimated that an additional one million people could be displaced this year "in a country where pre-2006 displacement figures had reached about 1.4 million."
The IOM warned the rising figures mean there are fewer communities that could absorb and help the newly displaced, noting that some of the more stable Iraqi regions have decided to restrict or close their provinces to new arrivals.
The 120-member state agency -- whose mission is to ensure humane management of migration and provide humanitarian assistance -- said emergency aid is urgently needed.
Its chief of mission in Iraq, Rafiq Tschannen, said food and shelter are "needed urgently for these people who are suffering both physically and psychologically from their ordeals," according to the statement.
Especially affected are the children. Lack of food and deteriorating health services "are leading to a growing number of cases of malnutrition, disease and infections among children," the IOM said.
It drew a bleak picture of what this year holds. Tschannen said the IOM's appeal for Iraq last year was only 25 percent successful. "The prospects for internal displacement this year are again grim," he said.
