Over two million people became internally displaced and over two million became externally displaced in neighboring countries. Thousands of displaced families became heavily dependant on humanitarian aid, which had intensified the growing humanitarian crisis in Iraq. According to an assessment carried out by the World Food Program in 2007, some 55 percent of the displaced families were unable to get their food rations provided under Iraq’s Public Distribution System (PDS) due to various difficulties including the transfer of their ration cards to their new place of residence.
The highest number of Internally Displace People (IDP) was registered in September 2007- 2,299,425 people. By end of January 2008, a total of 126,768 people were registered as returnees, as many had thought that the security situation in some areas in Iraq had relatively improved. On the other hand, some IDP families were forced to return to their original areas of residence by the high cost of living in their host communities.