( CNN ) -- The United Nations official overseeing efforts to help Iraq 's many displaced people said Monday the country could be at a turning point . `` This new government represents an enormous opportunity for Iraq , but also for our work , '' said Antonio Guterres , the U.N. high commissioner for refugees , on his first visit to Iraq since the country formed a new government in December . `` I hope today we are marking the beginning of the end of the displacement chapter in Iraq . '' There are 196,000 Iraqis registered as refugees with UNHCR , mainly in neighboring Syria , Jordan and Lebanon , the agency said in a news release . The UNHCR also `` estimates there are about 1.3 million internally displaced Iraqis , and some 500,000 of them living in extremely precarious conditions . '' Guterres met with top Iraqi leaders , including President Jalal Talabani , Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari . He proposed `` a government-led national plan of action '' to create the conditions that would allow Iraqis to return home , the UNHCR said . But Guterres stressed that returning to Iraq should be voluntary . `` To force people to return home against their will where insecurity prevails is unacceptable , '' Guterres said . The UNHCR said it was a reference to recent deportations of Iraqis from a number of European countries . Sweden last week defended its decision to deport 26 Iraqi asylum-seekers . The country said the European Court of Human Rights supports a Swedish immigration court 's ruling that an asylum-seeker from Iraq would have to show an individual threat directed toward him or her . The UNHCR said several of the men deported from Sweden were from Iraq 's volatile provinces -- Baghdad , Diyala , Salaheddin , Nineveh and Kirkuk . Last year , western European countries deported more than 400 Iraqis , according to the UNHCR . In June , the UNHCR announced that a milestone had been reached , with 100,000 Iraqi refugees approved for resettlement .
The UN high commissioner for refugees meets with top Iraqi officials . He proposes a plan of action to create conditions that will allow refugees to return home . He says there are 196,000 Iraqi refugees in other countries , 1.3 million internally displaced . Iraq 's new government ` ` represents an enormous threat , '' UNHCR says .