ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – After the Iraqi government announced it would close displacement camps in the Nineveh governorate within 20 days, over 150 displaced families have arrived at camps in the Kurdistan Region, camp officials say.
Earlier this month, Iraq’s council of ministers and the Nineveh administration started to forcibly expel Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from camps in Nineveh in a move to close the camps permanently.
Read More: Iraq begins closure of displacement camps in Nineveh governorate
Since then, hundreds of displaced families from the camps have been moved to their hometowns, and many of these camps have been closed.
Aysha, an elderly displaced woman, told Kurdistan 24 that during the five years she and her family had been displaced, they have been to every camp in Salahuddin and its surroundings. “Finally, when they closed the Namrood camp [in Nineveh], we found refuge at the Hassansham camp,” she said.
“With mistreatment from the Shia [Hashd al-Shaabi] militias and a lack of services and security in Mosul, we cannot go back,” Aysha added.
The decision to close camps in central and northern Iraq puts a massive strain on the administration of IDP camps in the autonomous Kurdish region, especially at Hassansham and Khazir because they receive many displaced families daily.
Rashid Darwesh, a director at the Khazir and Hassansham camps, said the displaced families who were forcibly expelled after the recent closures do not have guarantees for their safety and well-being.
“With no other haven, they turn to the Kurdistan Region camps,” he told Kurdistan 24. “As a result, we receive 15 to 20 families daily at the Khazir and Hassansham zone.”
Iraq declared a “final victory” over the so-called Islamic State in December 2017, three years after the terror group overran roughly a third of the country’s territory. Its fighters, however, continue to wage an insurgency in multiple provinces.
With the camp closures, displaced residents are forced to return to their liberated areas where they then face acts of revenge by security forces or others who accuse the families of having ties to the Islamic State.
A report Human Rights Watch (HRW) published in mid-June highlighted the experiences of displaced Iraqi families struggling to find a safe home.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Additional reporting by Renaz Ali)