Well I suppose any news of improvement must be welcomed - hundreds of thousands now is surely better than the millions that existed under Saddam's rule.

The refugee's sheltering in Iran in that census in 2001 mentioned by dianavan would primarily have been made up of:
- Kurdish refugees fleeing from Saddam Hussein
- Ma'adan Shia (Marsh Arabs) refugees fleeing from Saddam Hussein
- Tajik Afghan refugees fleeing from the Taleban