Iraqis return from Egypt, some say it's too soon

CAIRO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - About 240 Iraqis flew home from Cairo on Sunday aboard a government-sponsored flight, but some refugee agencies and analysts said their return was premature and politically motivated.

Families crowded outside a Cairo airport terminal hours before the flight was due to take off and an Iraqi consular official handed them small plastic Iraqi flags.

The flight was the second airlift sponsored by the Iraqis this week. A similar number of refugees flew home on Aug. 11.

The Iraqi government says security has improved and has encouraged those who fled the country after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to return.

"It is political. The government wants to portray the situation as sustainably safe," said Joost Hilterman, an Iraq expert in the International Crisis Group think tank.

"There is no doubt the situation has improved in a number of ways. But how sustainable is it? Violent political actors have gone to ground, but kidnappings are at a high rate."

Several refugees interviewed by Reuters said they were returning home because of financial hardships they faced in Egypt, rather than the improved security situation in Iraq.

"Everything in Egypt is too expensive. We are going back because of how hard life is here," said Emad Ibrahim, who was accompanied by his wife and three children.

"I had to borrow the taxi fare to get here," he said.

Egypt hosts about 100,000 Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers, out of at least 2 million who fled after the invasion. The majority of refugees live in neighbouring Syria and Jordan.

Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the repatriations were not voluntary if returnees left Egypt because of destitution.

"We are in no position to encourage them to return. We hope the return is based on security rather than destitution," she said.

A coalition of Iraqi and international non-governmental organisations said this month the government's decision to repatriate refugees from Egypt was a "rushed and premature return process" with possible "disastrous consequences."

An Iraqi consular official said similar flights from Egypt would continue for nine more weeks, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency reported. (Editing by Alaa Shahine)