UNHCR reviews Iraqi asylum guidelines

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 5 (UPI) -- The U.N. refugee agency revised its guidelines for Iraqi asylum seekers from parts of the country, saying their cases should be assessed on an individual basis.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said security improvements in parts of Iraq, particularly Anbar province, warranted reconsideration of its guidelines for return eligibility of Iraqi asylum seekers.

UNHCR said in the past that all Iraqis from the southern and central provinces should be considered refugees but revised that for the first time since 2007 to say protection needs for those citizens should be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Individuals from at-risk groups, however, should continue to receive special consideration, the UNHCR said. Those groups include religious minorities, those working with international companies, human-rights activists and members of the homosexual community.

UNHCR officials said the individual assessment holds for asylum-seekers from the Kurdish provinces of Erbil, Dahuk and Sulaimaniya as well.

In Baghdad, Diyala, Ninawa, Kirkuk and Salah al-Din, however, the uptick in violence recently warrants caution, with the UNHCR saying asylum-seekers from those provinces need continued protection.

Despite the reassessment, however, the UNHCR called on foreign governments to abstain from forcibly returning Iraqis to their places of origin.

The UNHCR said more than 40,000 Iraqis filed asylum applications in 2008.