According to the UNHCR, about 27% of Iraqi refugee families in Syria are without a breadwinner. Early in the recent Iraq war, Iraqis in Syria were the politically threatened Baath party, including supporters of Hussein's government. But after the fighting began in Falluja in 2004, Shi'a were the main new entries to Syria. Before the restrictions were imposed, Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria received 3 month visas or permits with extension possibilities. However, the refugees are not entitled to work, but most do anyway due to lax enforcement on the part of the Syrian government. There were few sanctions for those who overstay and fail to renew. Numbering over 1.2 million, Iraqi refugees comprise a large portion of Syria's population of 18 million. This has caused an increase in the cost of living and caused a strain on infrastructure. Sources like oil, heat, water and electricity were said to be becoming more scarce as demand had gone up. Syrian's deputy foreign minister has stated that the price of food has increased by 30%, property prices by 40%, and rentals by 150%. Water consumption rose by 21%, costing the Syrian government about 6.8 million US dollars in 2006. The Iraqi population also strained the labor market: Syrian unemployment was 18% in 2006. Refugees put a strain on health services (which are free in Syria), and Syria experienced public school overcrowding. In 2005 and 2006, Syria used $162 million to offer aid to Iraqi refugees in the country. Syria once maintained an open border for Arab migrants, and entitled Iraqi refugees to Syrian health care and schools. The Syrian government accepted Iraqis as prima facie refugees. However, on October 1, 2007 news agencies reported that Syria re-imposed restrictions on Iraqi refugees, as stated by a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Under Syria's new rules, only Iraqi merchants, businessmen and university professors with visas acquired from Syrian embassies may enter Syria. In 2012–13, as a Syrian civil war intensified, many Iraqi refugees fled the rising violence. Fewer than 200,000 Iraqis remained in Syria in 2012, according to the office of the Iraqi ambassador in Damascus. Many of the Iraqis were helped to return to Iraq by the provision of free flights and bus tickets, paid for by the Iraqi government. Tens of thousands of Iraqi families traveled back to their original country, although Iraq is itself unstable, and sectarian bomb attacks occur there almost daily. The majority of Iraqis fleeing back from Syria in 2012 were Shia according to a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration.