Another 1 million Iraqis may flee homes in 2007

GENEVA, Feb 16 (Reuters) Sectarian violence could force another 1 million Iraqis to flee their homes this year, an international migration agency warned today.

About 1.5 million Iraqis -- Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds -- have already fled mixed communities for the relative safety of their own ethnic or religious majority areas since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Many live in makeshift houses without electricity or sanitation, the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said, adding that donors were not responding to its appeals for funds to help the needy.

''As many as an additional 1 million people'' could be uprooted in 2007, given the violence, the IOM said.

''The needs are enormous. Emergency supplies such as shelter and food are needed urgently for these people who are suffering both physically and psychologically,'' said Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's chief of mission in Iraq.

''Those who are internally displaced are largely people who don't have the financial resources to leave the country,'' he added.

So far the IOM has received just 1 million dollars, with pledges of a further 6 million dollars, of the 50 million dollars it has sought for its work in Iraq in 2007. Last year it raised 9 million dollars after appealing for 25 million dollars.

''IOM has been leading the emergency response to the displaced in Iraq, but so far we have received even less confirmed funding for humanitarian work for 2007,'' Tschannen said in a statement.

Reuters KR DB2134