Return or integration: Khanqin's plan to resolve 9 displaced villages’ fate
Shafaq News / The Department of Immigration and Displaced Persons in the Khanqin district, northeast of Diyala, revealed on Friday a community plan to resolve the fate of nine villages that were displaced due to ISIS attacks ISIS in 2020.
Ali Ghazi Agha, the department's director, informed Shafaq News Agency that "nine villages on the outskirts of Khanqin, consisting of over 300 displaced families, sought refuge within Khanqin during 2020 due to ISIS attacks and threats. Since these villages have been turned into military barracks and are now devoid of essential services, agricultural resources, and employment possibilities, they are still unable to return for security reasons."
Agha confirmed that the department, "will initiate a plan to determine the fate of the displaced families within Khanqin by facilitating their return in coordination with the relevant authorities or integrating them within Khanqin." He added, "the integration plan is a program announced by the Ministry of Immigration and Displaced Persons to resolve the issue of displacement and the suffering of displaced persons across the country."
Integrating them within the district is a plan launched by the Ministry, and it gives the displaced individuals the option to choose between staying in displacement areas with permanent residence and livelihood adjustment or returning to their original residential areas.
"There have been no recent cases of displacement in the villages of Khanqin, and the displacement file has been completely closed except for a few areas whose fate is pending due to several circumstances", he added.
Regarding the fate of more than 20 villages with a majority Kurdish population that were displaced in 2020, Agha clarified that "the currently recorded official statistics are related to nine villages, and the families that were displaced did not communicate with the department during previous periods."
During the years 2019-2020, ISIS attacks forced thousands of Kurdish-majority families to flee from the outskirts of Khanqin to inside Diyala or to the Kurdistan Region.
Officials in Khanqin emphasize that the reasons behind the terrorist attacks and displacement are the security vacuums left by the withdrawal of Peshmerga forces from their combat positions after the events of the referendum in October 2017.
