Cairo ? More than 1,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt have returned home since Aug. 11, when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began sending his state jet to fetch them. Iraq will expand its no-cost return program to Jordan this month, dispatching planes and buses to bring back more than 500 refugees there, Iraq’s envoy in Amman said Friday.

While Iraq’s leaders say their country is safe again and government ministers are welcoming returnees on red carpets at Baghdad’s airport, the International Organization for Migration says 13,000 refugees had returned to Iraq before last month’s airlift.

Iraqis taking advantage of the airlifts here said they had been motivated by the free flights and by reports of diminished violence in Iraq.