TEHRAN, 5 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - Some 80 Iraqi Kurdish refugees returned to northern Iraq recently from Iran as part of a pilot repatriation convoy by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Full report

ANKARA, 31 Mar 2004 (IRIN) - Some 4,836 Iraqi refugees living in Iran have recently returned home under the repatriation programme run by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Full report

ANKARA, 9 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - One of the largest camps to host Iraqi refugees in Iran closed over the weekend, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed. "It went very smoothly," UNHCR spokeswoman in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Marie-Helene Verney, told IRIN on Monday. Full report

TEHRAN, 17 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - Two hundred and forty-five Iraqi refugees were repatriated from Iran on Monday, according to the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They travelled from the Ahvaz refugee camp in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. Full report

IRAN, 4 Sep 2003 (IRIN) - The first convoy of 100 Iraqi refugees to be repatriated from southwest Iran to their homeland are still waiting for the green light, as many prepare themselves for the journey to the country they left behind more than a decade ago. Full report

TEHRAN, 28 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - Marie-Helene Verney, the media relations officer for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Iranian capital, Tehran, has told IRIN that according to a tentative agreement between the UNHCR and the Coalition Provincial Administration (CPA) in Iraq, the repatriation of a limited number of refugees would take place as soon as safety and reintegration guarantees could be given by the CPA. Full report

ANKARA, 5 Jun 2003 (IRIN) - The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) remains cautious over repatriating Iraqi refugees from neighbouring Iran following an Iranian government announcement last week on the start of a voluntary repatriation effort. Full report

TEHRAN, 27 May 2003 (IRIN) - Nearly two months after the fall of Baghdad, cross-border humanitarian relief operations from neighbouring Iran are being stepped up. Humanitarian organisations based in Iran, including the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), have already dispatched 40 convoys carrying desperately needed materials, particularly food, medicines and water, to the people of Iraq, most notably in the Sulaymaniyah, Basra, Baghdad and Al-Kut areas. Full report

ISLAMABAD, 17 Apr 2003 (IRIN) - The first food aid convoy from the World Food Programme [WFP] in Iran is on the way to northern Iraq to meet the needs of people who only have between four and six weeks' worth of food left. "There is a great need for this food to be sent in urgently," the agency's spokesperson in Iran, Ramin Rafirasme, told IRIN from the capital, Tehran, on Thursday. Full report

ANKARA, 16 Apr 2003 (IRIN) - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has confirmed that there is no danger of an influx of refugees crossing into Iran from Iraq following last week's reports of population movements in the eastern Iraqi town of Badrah. Full report

IRAN: Interview with the Iranian Red Crescent

IRAQ: Briefing paper on food security

IRAQ: Briefing paper on power

IRAQ: Briefing paper on water and sanitation

IRAQ: Briefing paper on Education

IRAQ: Briefing paper on health