AMMAN (JT and AFP) - Thousands of displaced Iraqis are facing nearly as much of a challenge returning to their homes as they did after they fled fighting, an international migration agency said on Tuesday.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) surveyed about 4,000 families who returned home and found that they were having trouble securing food, water and energy supplies while jobs were hard to come by and security fears remained, AFP reported from Geneva.

Thirty-four per cent said their homes had been destroyed, while others found their homes had been taken over by someone else.

"Our report shows that going home is almost as difficult as being displaced," said IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya.

Some 58,000 returnee families - 348,660 people - have been recorded by the IOM in Iraq, nearly 60 per cent of them in Baghdad, while 230,000 families were still displaced.

Thirty-four per cent of returnees surveyed were unable to find jobs that would give them a livelihood, and the challenge was even more acute for the 12 per cent of female-headed households among the returnees, according to the agency.

Although only a small fraction have returned since they fled to other parts of the country in recent years, there were signs that the flow is increasing slowly, said Pandya.

"Of the nearly 230,000 displaced families assessed by the IOM in Iraq, more than half have stated their intention to return to their former homes if security conditions continue to improve," she added.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Jordan Representative Imran Riza said recently that the agency is placing a "huge priority" on working within Iraq along with local and international governmental and non-governmental organisations to pave the way for the Iraqis' eventual return, addressing a lack of security and issues with the rule of law.

Rather than be "pushed" back to Iraq due to economic or other pressures, displaced Iraqis should be "pulled" back, or attracted to return to their homeland, he stressed.

A majority of returnees within Iraq are internally displaced persons, he said, noting that a widespread return of Iraqis abroad has yet to occur.

"There are indications that people are not going back the way some were thinking a year ago," he said, underlining that the impact of the ongoing violence in Iraq, particularly in host countries such as Jordan, is still being felt.

Some 500,000 Iraqis reside in the Kingdom, the vast majority classified as guests, and although they are afforded public healthcare and education, they are not entitled to work in Jordan.

In July, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie praised Jordan for shouldering "a large burden" in providing assistance to Iraqi guests.