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Background

After Iraqi forces defeated the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2017 and took back control of the regions that had been under them, the rate of internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their area of origin (AoO) has remained relatively low. To facilitate returns, the Iraqi government initiated a plan to close IDP camps in 2019. In 2020, with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, camp closures were put on hold. In October 2020, the government resumed camp closures. By the end of 2020, 11 camps were closed and four were reclassified as informal sites. Across federal Iraq, 27 camps remained open at the time of data collection, until in November 2021, when Amriyat al Fallujah was re-classified as an informal site. As of November 2021, nearly 1.2 million IDPs remained in protracted displacement throughout the country. This included almost 180,000 individuals who resided in 26 formal IDP camps after the re-classification of Almriyat al-Fallujah.

As camps close and the context in Iraq transitions from emergency response to stabilisation and development, the Iraq Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster strategy aims to support safe camp consolidations and closures, and to ensure minimum CCCM standards are being met across camps. The REACH Movement Intentions assessment conducted in June-August 2021 showed that only two per cent of in-camp IDPs intended to return to their AoO within the 12 months following data collection. The low rates of intentions to return make in-camp IDPs vulnerable to shocks in case of IDP camps closure.

The Iraq CCCM Cluster and REACH conduct bi-annual IDP Camp Profiling assessments in order to inform more effective humanitarian assistance for IDPs living in camps. The information obtained will be used to monitor camp conditions and highlight priority needs and service gaps faced by households (HHs) in formal IDP camps across Iraq, as well as multi-sectoral differences across camps. This information will be used to address IDPs needs, as well as to inform prioritisation of camps for consolidation or closure, if necessary.

This report reflects the XV round of household surveys, conducted between 16 June and 9 August 2021, 12 months after the previous round of camp profiling conducted between 16 August and 10 September 2020. Data collection took place in 27 formal IDP camps (Table 1). Of the 27 camps that were covered, 26 camps remained open by the end of 2021.

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Iraq: IDP Camp Profiling - Round XV, Situation Overview (June - August 2021) - Iraq - ReliefWeb