Iraq Issues - 2023

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

Iraq-Iran: Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf

Iraq-Turkey: Turkey has expressed concern over the autonomous status of Kurds in Iraq

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 7,864 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (mid-year 2022); 274,724 (Syria), 8,582 (Iran), 8,187 (Turkey) (2023)

IDPs: 1.17 million (displacement in central and northern Iraq since January 2014) (2023)

stateless persons: 47,253 (2022); note - in the 1970s and 1980s under SADDAM Husayn's regime, thousands of Iraq's Faili Kurds, followers of Shia Islam, were stripped of their Iraqi citizenship, had their property seized by the government, and many were deported; some Faili Kurds had their citizenship reinstated under the 2006 Iraqi Nationality Law, but others lack the documentation to prove their Iraqi origins; some Palestinian refugees persecuted by the SADDAM regime remain stateless

NOTE: The information regarding Iraq on this page is re-published from the 2023 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Iraq 2023 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Iraq 2023 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.