Iraq safer? Not according to the people who live there.

The much touted return of the refugees from bordering countries back their homes in Iraq appears to have been little more than spun BS.

Most Iraqi refugees returning home to Iraq from Syria are going back not because they feel their homeland is safer, but because they can no longer afford to live abroad, a U.N report has found.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report for February 2008 also said the flow of refugees back to Iraq from Syria had slowed after a sharp upsurge late last year and that more were leaving Iraq than coming home.

The Iraqi Red Crescent said last month some 46,000 refugees had returned to Iraq from Syria between September 15 and December 27, a much lower figure than that given by Iraq's government.

It doesn't help that a good number of refugees returning to Iraq, particularly some areas of Baghdad, arrive to find their homes gone or occupied.