Iraq tries to entice back doctors who fled violence

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government is trying toentice back hundreds of doctors who fled the country because oframpant violence and says improved security is already leadingsome to return.

Rasheed al-Nassiri, head of the government's "Committee toProtect Doctors", said more than 400 Iraqi doctors had comeback this year, encouraged by a drop in violence and betterwages.

"Migration has stopped and now we are working hard toencourage migration in the opposite direction," Nassiri told aconference held in Baghdad this week to look at how toencourage doctors to return to the war-torn country.

Doctors and other professionals fled in their hundredsduring the explosion of violence in the years following the2003 U.S.-led invasion, triggering an enormous brain drain.

But much attention has focused on doctors given that theywere targeted because of their profession. Once the elite ofIraqi society, doctors were attacked by militants seeking tocreate a climate of fear and kidnappers demanding rich ransoms.

The official Iraqi Doctors' Syndicate said last Decemberthat 60 to 70 percent of 2,327 registered medical specialistswith 15 to 20 years' experience had left Iraq. The syndicatesaid it had no new figures for how many doctors have returned.

Nassiri told the conference that around 176 doctors hadbeen killed in the past five years, but the security situationis now much improved, with violence at a four-year low in May.

The conference called for protected residential compoundsto be built for doctors at hospitals to keep them safe, saidlaws against assaults on doctors should be enforced andproposed that doctors be allowed to carry weapons.

GOVERNMENT LISTENING

In a message read to the meeting, Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki said the government was "ready to address all theresults of this conference".

Aakif al-Alusi, a pathologist who fled Iraq at the heightof the sectarian violence in late 2006 after receiving a deaththreat, said doctors still faced security problems in Iraq.

Alusi has settled in Bahrain but the syndicate invited himto the conference, hoping it would convince him to come back.

"The security is much better but the doctors still getthreats from criminal gangs. It is still difficult to presscharges in the police station and say 'I am being threatened orI am being followed by a car'," Alusi said.

"There is a problem of individual security since the doctoris a prominent figure in society ... My sons want to return,their future is here. If God wills, we will return," he said.

Abu Farah, an oculist at Baghdad's Ibn al-Haitham eyehospital, said doctors' salaries were raised last year andwould be increased further this year.

"With these salaries and the improving security situation,I think it's encouraging," Abu Farah said.

Iraqi doctors' pay remains low by international standards.

A recently qualified doctor in Iraq makes about $650 (327pounds) a month, while a specialist can earn more than $2,000 amonth, depending on experience and expertise, Abu Farah said.

In Britain, family doctors earn on average more than 8,500pounds a month.

The head of the doctors' syndicate, Nadhim Abdul-HameedQassim, who attended the conference, said the state shouldguarantee good security, economic and social standards toencourage doctors to return.

"We will say to the state that we did not leave Iraq and weare helping the people in Iraq, so help us to protect the Iraqidoctor," he said.

(Editing by Adrian Croft and Samia Nakhoul)