Many thousands more could flee Iraqi violence - UN

GENEVA, Nov 4 (Reuters) Some fifty thousand Iraqis are fleeing their homes each month and hundreds of thousands more may soon follow, fearing prolonged instability in the country, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

''We fear hundreds of thousands more Iraqis who have waited to see an improvement in the situation are now teetering on the brink of displacement,'' UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva yesterday.

At least 1.6 million are what the UN calls internally displaced within Iraq and 1.8 million have fled to neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, according to the UNHCR.

Many were uprooted before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. Redmond said people were now fleeing their homes in increasing numbers.

Insurgent attacks and street violence following Iraq's first post-war elections last year intensified after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February, prompting many to seek refuge with family, neighbors and even strangers.

Many of those displaced are being helped by host families, local communities and religious groups, not necessarily major international aid organizations.

''The enormous scale of the needs, the ongoing violence and the difficulties in reaching the displaced make it a problem that is practically beyond the capacity of humanitarian agencies,'' Redmond said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) yesterday appealed for 20 million dollars to allow it to keep handing out food, water and other supplies to those uprooted by the conflict, and to the families and communities who are hosting them.

''A majority of displaced persons live in inadequate shelter, cannot meet monthly rental expenses, or are facing pressures and tensions due to overcrowded conditions with family and friends,'' IOM said, based on an assessment of three Iraqi governorates.

The UNHCR has received only 60 per cent of the 29 million dollars it requested to help displaced Iraqis and some 50,000 Palestinian, Iranian and Syrian refugees living in Iraq, who Redmond said were ''in an increasingly dire situation''.

The agency is reassessing its financing needs for Iraq and met with donor governments this week to discuss an increase in aid. No pledges have yet been announced.

In Ottawa, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the lack of money meant his agency was ''struggling with real difficulties'' to handle the exodus of refugees.

''But it's not only Iraq. We have the same problems in south Sudan, we have the same problems in other parts of the world.

In fact, to be absolutely honest, if you compare our needs to the funds available, there is still a big gap,'' Antonio Guterres told reporters during an official visit.

''And of course when the situation worsens and gets more complicated, the funding gaps become more difficult to manage,'' he said, adding that the media focus on the violence in Iraq had helped obscure humanitarian problems such as refugees.

REUTERS DKA RAI0919