11.03.2008 - Source: US Department of State

Women required to obtain approval of male relative to receive passport ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2007") [ID 23818]

"The MOI's Passport Office maintained a policy of requiring women to obtain the approval of a close male relative before being issued a passport."

Document(s): Open document

08.06.2007 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Northern Iraq: Law requires women to have male guardian sign their passport application ("Kurdish Women Resent New Passport System") [ID 20675]

"For years, the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have overlooked a piece of Iraqi legislation which states a woman who applies for a passport first has to have her father, uncle or brother’s written permission. In the past, women in this part of the country simply applied and were given a passport without fuss. But the introduction of the new G edition passport in March 2007 – which is electronically read and difficult to forge - means that all passports are now issued on a special printing machine in Baghdad where the law is enforced."

Document(s): Open document

11.2004 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Report detailing what happened to some of the key archival and forensic evidence that the U.S.-led coalition and, more recently, the Iraqi interim government failed to secure ("Iraq: State of the Evidence") [#26781],  [ID 10022]

Information about Documentary, Evidence, Looting and Destruction of Documents, Documents Held by Iraqi Political Groups and NGOs, Handling of Documents, Role of the CPA

Document(s): Open document

15.10.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iraqi passport agents asking for bribes ("original document") [ID 10043]

"(...) Many Iraqis seeking passports to travel abroad have complained in recent months that Iraqi passport agents were seeking between $100 and $200 to speed up the processing of passports. The official cost for a new passport is $1. AP reported on 10 August that Iraqi citizens have complained of having to pay bribes at other places as well: banks, the electric company, telecommunications offices, the tax service, and at real estate offices. (...)"

Document(s): original document

29.09.2004 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

FORMER DEPORTEES RECEIVE NEW CITIZENSHIP PAPERS, DOCUMENTS ("original document") [ID 10023]

"(Al-Taakhi) - An official source in the Ministry of Migrants and Displacement said the ministerial council has agreed to restore Iraqi citizenship to those deported to Iran by the former regime, which also seized their property. The source added that the interim administration law cancelled the decision of the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council [Number 66 of 1980], which was issued during the Iraq-Iran war. The ministry also has issued ration cards to the returnees and asked government offices to facilitate their requests.
(Al-Taakhi is issued daily by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.)"

Document(s): original document

27.09.2004 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

All Iraqis receive new citizenship cards and nationality certificates ("original document") [ID 10024]

"ALL TO RECEIVE NEW ID CARDS, PASSPORTS

(Al-Taakhi) - A Ministry of Interior official said all deportees and other Iraqis whose citizenship was cancelled by the former regime for political reasons soon would regain their rights after the issuance of the regulations. The Ministry's Director General of Travel and Citizenship Hadi al-Mehna said all Iraqis would receive the new citizenship cards and nationality certificates. The new documents would not be easily counterfeited, he added.
(Al-Taakhi is issued daily by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.)"

Document(s): original document

24.09.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

KURDS DEMAND PASSPORTS IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE ("original document") [ID 10044]

"KURDS DEMAND PASSPORTS IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. Unnamed Kurdish officials told the Baghdad daily "Al-Bayan" issued by the Islamic Al-Da'wah Party that they would demand that Baghdad allow passports to be issued in Kurdish for the residents of the northern Kurdish-dominated governorates. New Iraqi passports are being issued in Arabic only. The Transitional Administrative Law for Iraq calls for both Arabic and Kurdish to serve as the two official languages of the state; all official documents are to be issued in both languages under the law. Sources told the daily that Kurdish officials would raise the issue at an upcoming conference to be attended by government representatives and border security officials, and representatives of the Kurdistan government."

Document(s): original document

20.09.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Iraq: Visa requirements eased after lobbying ("original document") [ID 10046]

"Visa requirements have been confusing and expensive since Iraqi officials took control of the country in late June (...).

Staff at aid agencies already established in the country have been spending days getting required letters of approval from at least three ministries before they left the country, some workers told IRIN on condition of anonymity.

When coming back into Iraq, workers often saw more delays. At the Iraqi consulate in Amman, Jordan, for example, consular officers required final approval from officials in Baghdad before they would issue a visa, no matter how many previous approvals were presented, according to aid workers and journalists.

Some foreigners were told to bring letters of invitation from their companies directly to Baghdad airport or any international border. Others were told that they had to pay US $40 to buy a visa in Amman.

A journalist entering the country paid a $200 "fine" because he had what he thought was the required invitation letter from his company when he got to Baghdad airport, but no visa in his passport.

"It was such a time-consuming process before. Agencies could apply and [only] pick up a visa a couple of days later," an aid agency worker in Baghdad told IRIN, declining to be identified for security reasons.

Now things are easier, after about two months of negotiations between the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which is currently based in Amman, aid agencies and others, and the interim Iraqi government, a worker at the Non-Governmental Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI) office in Amman told IRIN.
The worker also declined to be named for security reasons.

Discussions continued "at all levels" until the Ministry of Interior agreed to take over the visa approval process, the worker said.

"It's been in effect, and it works," the aid worker said. "They have very nicely agreed to do this. Basically, it was a collective effort from us." All that is now required is a letter of invitation sent to the Ministry of Interior and aid agencies don't have to pay for a visa.

Journalists and other foreign workers pay $40 for a single-entry visa. Foreigners working for the US Department of Defence who have identification are also let into the country free.

"There's an interim procedure for NGOs, now that the Interior Ministry has taken over the procedure," the worker said.
"Before, it was quite a complicated process. You had to have an invitation from the related ministry, the Planning Ministry and then the Foreign Affairs Ministry."

The aid worker in Baghdad said at least one person had come into the country under the new rule. "It was an overnight change in the situation," the worker said. There seems to be no signs of corruption either. "We've had no reports of bribes or corruption, as we were originally instructed of the procedures at the Iraqi embassy in Amman."

Consular officials in Amman recently received training in the US on how to do their jobs more efficiently. Hundreds of applications were sitting on desks in Amman on a recent visit. Officials worked late into the night to process them.

Many aid agencies in Iraq have now registered with the Ministry of Planning to make sure they are following the rules when it is time to get visa approval, said Nawfal al-Rawi, a spokesman for Muslim Hands, a British-based aid agency, told IRIN. Iraqi Muslim Hands staff are guided by British directors who have not visited the Baghdad office in about four months, he said.

"Whenever they said they would come back into the country, something else happened," al-Rawi said, referring to the recent spate of kidnappings of foreigners and other violence. "But we are registered with the ministry, so there will be no problem."

Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003, there was no visa requirement or charge associated with coming into Iraq. At first, US-led forces let anyone into the country at major borders and airports. As Iraqis took over border immigration before sovereignty was handed over to Iraq, they added entry and exit stamps to the process.

Under the former regime, aid agencies went through a complicated vetting process, and many were not allowed to work in the country. Journalists also had a difficult time getting visas. Corrupt officials would drag out the time it took to receive approval, often asking for money to speed up the process, according to local people."

Document(s): original document

08.2004 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Report on the current security and legal situation, material safety, displacement situation, human rights and protection situation as well as an overall analysis ("Country of Origin Information (COI) paper on Iraq (as of August 2004)") [#24717],  [ID 10025]

Statelessness, trial / process of law and documentation

"Statelessness is a major issue in Iraq. Up to half a million Iraqis (including Faili Kurds and Arab Shi’ites) were stripped of their nationality by the previous government and expelled to Iran. Meanwhile, Bidouns (stateless nomads) live on either side of the Iraq/Kuwait border. In addition, children of mixed marriages (particularly in cases where the mother is Iraqi and the father of another nationality) may face problems if they wish to return to Iraq, while women (such as those who have married men of another nationality) may face particular obstacles when they wish to return. In the recent past, nationality issues have not been decided in courts, and nationality laws frequently revised, with the result that indigenous expertise on the subject has declined. (...)

According to many Iraqi lawyers interviewed, there is no restriction on access to legal services as long as a person can prove that he or she is an Iraqi, although lawyers’ fees may represent an obstacle for many seeking legal redress. The situation of access is particularly problematic for Iraqis who were previously stripped of or deprived of their Iraqi citizenship, as their nationality problems must be resolved in order for them to access legal services, the process of which in itself implies access to legal assistance. One NGO funded by UNHCR currently operates a legal aid centre in Maysan province in the South and the creation of other UNHCR funded centres (in partnership with the International Rescue Committee) is also planned for the North. Among other tasks, these centres assist Iraqi returnees who lack Iraqi identity papers to translate into Arabic and notarize any identity documents they may have obtained or been issued with while abroad, in order that they may access legal and other services open to Iraqi nationals. The legal aid also assist people to collect and prepare the necessary documentation (and in particular proof that their land was confiscated by the former regime) in order to file a property claim with the IPCC."

Document(s): Open document

15.07.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

IRAQ BEGINS ISSUING NEW PASSPORTS ("original document") [ID 10026]

"IRAQ BEGINS ISSUING NEW PASSPORTS. The Iraqi government has begun to issue new passports that carry the emblem of the interim Iraqi government, according to a 13 July report by Al-Jazeera. The passports will serve as temporary travel documents -- replacing those issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. Fa'iz Subayh, the director of a local passport office in the Al-Azamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, told Al-Jazeera that the passport will be issued to all citizens without exception. Some 300 Iraqis are applying for the new passport daily, Al-Jazeera reported. Reuters reported on 10 July that the passport fee is about $100."

Document(s): original document

10.06.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Identity, ID-cards, travel documents ("original document") [ID 10027]

Information about temporary documents (temporary food ration cards and identification cards, temporary travel documents), Iraqi identification card, unregistered refugees, planning a census, the central foreign affairs office has a complete set of names and birthdays of people born in Iraq - For the last several months, anyone claiming to be from Iraq had to get the proper documents from that office.

"BAGHDAD, 10 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - A crush of at least 20 men hold on to the bars at the immigration window at an Interior Ministry office in the al-Karkh district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, jostling to apply for temporary documents showing they belong in Iraq. On any given day hundreds can be seen queuing up here with at east 100 applicants per day.

Omar Mohammed Rathi al-Saadi tried to hand over copies of his precious Iraqi identification card and a new passport-size photo of himself to officials. They are based inside the al-Karkh nationality and civil affairs department office of the Interior Ministry in the centre of the city near the heavily fortified region where US-led administrators work. “Please help me,” al-Saadi said in a pleading voice, “I have the correct documents.”

Al-Saadi told IRIN that he and his family were forced by the former Saddam Hussein regime to flee to Iran 15 years ago. He says he has managed to hold on to documents showing he was born in southern Iraq and that distant relatives can vouch for him.

UNREGISTERED REFUGEES

Over 11,200 people returned voluntarily to Iraq, facilitated by the UN office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Ministry of Trade has registered some 130,000 people who returned spontaneously, however this figure cannot be verified.

Alarmed at the large numbers of unregistered people similar to al-Saadi’s family flooding into Iraq, officials are planning a census to try to get information on who they are. If all goes as planned, the census could be completed soon according to Hamdiya Najaf, deputy minister at the displacement and migration ministry, which was recently created by US-led administrators.

Under former president Saddam Hussein, census figures were heavily politicised. Saddam forced thousands of people to move to other places around the country under his “Arabisation” programme. Most often, military people favoured by the former Baath Party regime were given land and houses in northern Iraq, displacing others who lived there.

An estimated 1 million people may have been “internally displaced” by the Arabisation programme. Another 4 million Iraqis may be living illegally and legally in the European Union, Najaf said. European countries had been pressuring those people to return home, she said, but UNHCR has called on governments to refrain from doing just that.

CENSUS

"Our problem now is to make an accurate count, because our ministry is concerned with all kinds of refugees, from the Turkish and Palestinian refugees here to people coming home from Iran,” Najaf said.

Once the returnees are identified, officials will better be able to provide services and adequate accomodate for them, Najaf said. For example, new housing is planned in southern Iraq for internally displaced people. The Iraqi official said her ministry also wants to beef up health and education services in the south, depending on what the census shows.

“These people should prove that they are Iraqi,” she said. “It should not be easy to prove - there should be accurate checking.”

Immediately after the US-led invasion of Iraq in April 2003, refugees and others started coming into the country, Najaf said. About 50,000 of them registered, she said. Many of them were given temporary food ration cards and identification cards without showing proper documents to prove they were from Iraq, said First Lieutenant Neshat Rashid, an immigration officer working at the al-Karkh office.

While the interior ministry punished some officials for handing out the temporary cards last year, it has no way of tracking the people who received them, Rashid said. Families continue to receive a monthly food stipend with food ration cards issued under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

IDENTIFYING IRAQIS

“We follow a procedure, but we don’t even have computers to check who has documents and who does not,” Rashid said. “This is important to interior security, so we want to prevent people from entering illegally from now on.”

A central foreign affairs office has a complete set of names and birthdays of people born in Iraq, Najaf said. For the last several months, anyone claiming to be from Iraq had to get the proper documents from that office, she added.

“It’s very easy to prove with relatives and this register,” Najaf said. “When a person gives his name, it’s very easy to check in the register.”

Meanwhile at the somewhat chaotic al-Karkh office, anyone without proper documents is now turned away, Rashid said. In the al-Karkh office alone, about 1,000-1,200 temporary documents are approved every day, most of them for people living in Iraq. Iraqis also come to the al-Karkh office and two others in Baghdad to apply for temporary travel documents, since virtually none were allowed to travel under the former regime.

“I want to take my wife and kids to Syria, to see the mountains,” Zia Tarek Khalid, 37, told IRIN. “It should be a wonderful experience.”"

Document(s): original document

31.05.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

New visitor visa requirements ("original document") [ID 10047]

"(...) All visitors to Iraq, including diplomats and aid workers, will soon need to apply for visas to enter the country as part of the scheduled 30 June handover of sovereignty to Iraqis. (...) Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, all that has been required to enter Iraq is a valid passport. Officials at the Jordanian-Iraqi border simply stamp visitors in and out of the country without any computerised system. (...)"

Document(s): original document

25.05.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Property commission and documents ("original document") [ID 10028]

""Iraq Property Claims Commission (IPPC), set up in January by the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. The commission has hired lawyers and other administrators to take people's claims and try to help them get back their property or give them money if they had their property taken between July 1968 and 9 April 2003. It is offering hope to many, but given the weight of claims, complicated legal processes and large number of properties, progress is likely to be slow. (...)

While many documents in central government ministries were looted or
burned immediately following the fall of Baghdad to Coalition forces, most real estate documents still exist, the lawyers say. Many families also hold some sort of document showing what belongs to them, which will help to reach a solution.

The larger challenge will be trying to work out who gets the house and who gets money when a property has been bought and sold three or four times since it was originally seized, Hassan said. Many cases may require a decision from the Ministry of Justice, he said. A three-judge panel has been set up to hear cases.

Processing of these claims might take months or years, he said, adding
that the commission's work was just a first step. Almost 17,000 claims
have been filed in the last two months alone.

Those who file a claim say whether they want to have their house back or
if they would be willing to sell it outright or rent it to the new inhabitants, many of whom have lived in the houses for more than 10 years. (...)"

Document(s): original document