Back to the future - Refugees contemplate a return to Iraq

The bombs that exploded in Baghdad on 8 December 2009 not only caused multiple casualties and damage, but also dealt a further blow to relations between Iraq and Syria. The series of bombings killed 110 people and raised concerns about the capability of Iraq's security forces, just five months after United States forces withdrew from Iraqi cities. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki immediately blamed Baathist groups operating from Syria, claiming they were directing sabotage operations against the US-backed government. This followed another series of carefully orchestrated attacks that killed more than 95 people in Baghdad on 19 August; Maliki again blamed Baathists in Syria for those events.

Although it is impossible to verify such allegations, and Syria denies them, Maliki's claims hail from the continued presence of millions of Iraqi refugees in Syria, some of whom are former Baathists from the Saddam Hussein regime. As the largest host country for Iraqi refugees, the transnational mobility of people across Syrian-Iraqi borders has security implications for both Iraq and Syria, as the two countries attempt to grapple with the problems of refugee returns, assuring security and managing refugee camps on the Syrian side of the border.