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Jan 15, 2021

Three years after Iraq officially declared victory over the Islamic State (IS),a new batch of over 3,000 of those displaced by the terror group have returned to their homes from Salamiyah camp in Ninevah governorate.The development is part ofIraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement plan to close this camp and others, the ministryannounced Jan. 9. The ministry is planning to close all the displacementcamps across Iraq this year.

This is the first government to create a comprehensive plan to bringthe displaced persons back to their areas of origin, saidMinister of Migration and Displacement Ivan Faiek Jabru, one of three female ministers in Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimis government.

We accepted the responsibility to seriously implement this strategy, she told Al-Monitor, pointing out that previous ministries had focusedonly on distributing food rations and providing health services. There were neither voluntary return effortsnor campclosures, and not even support to refugees abroad, she added.

Over the past six months, more than 66,600 internally displaced persons(IDPs) have returned to their homes.

Out of 76 displacementcamps before the formation of this government, only 29 camps are still open, saidJabru.Still, we increased the food rations to ensure food security and to cope with the impact of the coronaviruspandemic.

Ninevahs Salamiya camp and Anbars Amiriyat Fallujah camp will be shut down within days.

We still need time to solve security and tribal problems for Jadaah camp, to the south of Mosul, Jabru noted. As for the Kurdistan Regions camps, we are about to conduct a special visit to coordinate an effort to close 10 campsin the first phase [of closures]." The minister emphasized that no one will beforced to go back home.

However,there was a great deal of criticism from IDPs and relief workersthat thedisplaced are beingforced to return home orto move to other camps.Theyalso criticize the government fornot ensuring necessary safeguards for their return.

The governmentdenies the accusations.

It is 100% voluntary return, confirmed Jabru.We worked hard to remove the obstacles bycreatingasuitable environment,reconstructing their houses, providing job opportunities, holding national reconciliation workshopsand establishingincome-generating projects.

After he fled his hometown of al-Qaimon the borderwith Syriato Turkey in 2014, Omar al-Tai's relatives and neighbors sought refuge in displacementcamps inside Iraq.

Most of my relatives in al-Qaim and Rummana voluntarily came back to their homes,the 27-year-old teacher told Al-Monitor. Still, some are struggling financially. Their areas are safe now and the camps should be closed. But some want to stay there due to the lack of services, jobsorplaces to live.

Ahmed al-Ghurairi, a representative of the International Rescue Committees protection program who works in western Anbar,criticized the move.Some were forced to leave the camps recently, hetold Al-Monitor.Especially the families from al-Qaim. Most of them have neither homes nor jobs; the infrastructure is destroyed and the economy is in a deplorable state.

Mustafa,a displaced man who lives and works inHabbaniyah displacement camp and gave a pseudonym for security reasons, told Al-Monitor,About 100 families cannot go back home and might be forced to leave or move to Amiriyat Fallujah camp. Although the Habbaniyah camp was officially declared closed in November 2020, over 200 families still remain since they have nowhere else to go.

However, Jabru deniedthe useof force in returning the displaced to their homes. She told Al-Monitor that if families do not want to return home for any reason,we do not force them at all. She said that if a given camp only has a few families remaining, it may ask them to move to another camp to maintain the quality of service provided to them."

The governmenthopes to ensure the return of all IDPs, some of whom have lived for six years in camps withpoor educational and health services, andfaced abuse.

We implemented sustainable solutions to bring the people back and guarantee their welfare while we continue providing relief for them, Jabru said. We have distributed 300 flats in Maysan governorate, in the southeast of Iraq, for displaced families;restored 1,600 houses in Anbar and Ninevah;built 490 caravans to house displaced families;and built 41 other caravans as makeshift schools in Ninevah and Diyala in the past six months."

The ministry hasresumed issuingapprovalstoallowpeople to return to their hometowns intense areaslike Sinjar and Jurf al-Sakhar,after working to prevent the releaseof former IS members.

"The approvals to return home needed to cross various checkpoints took around 20 days to obtain,Qahtan Shaqqo, a young Yazidi man who returned to Sinjar six months ago from a camp in Dahuk, told Al-Monitor.

As of 2019, more than250,000 Iraqiswere awaiting asylumin neighboring countries.Due to the scope of this problem,Jabruhas focusedthe ministrys effortson helping refugees whoseasylum applications wererejected toreturn home.

Over the past three months, 800 citizens have returned fromTurkeyand Europe, she said.We havegranted379 land plots to some of these refugees along with a repatriation allocation of 4million Iraqi dinars [$2,740]eachto encourage them to come back.

Another13,000 internally displaced familieswere granted funding of1.5 million Iraqi dinars ($1,025) each, Jabru noted.Shaqqoand Taiare hoping to obtain these grants, saying some of their acquaintances alreadyhave.

Most of the people in Ramadi got those grants, said Tai.However,those inthe regions to the west of Anbar havent got them yet, including my father.We havent been compensated for the damage doneby aerial bombardments on our house and brand-new car. We have lost almost everything.

While many IDPslike Fahad Sultan, a Muslim Kurd who returned to his village on the outskirts of Sinjar after six years in Dahuk,hopedto resume normal life, they encountered unemployment, destroyed cities and infrastructure, tribal conflicts and unexploded ordnance.

Ghurairisaid that IS militants have recentlydestroyed transmission towersin al-Qaim.Some familieslivebelow the poverty line, andfamilies who depend on femalebreadwinnersare prone to exploitation, he explained.

The Migration and Displacement Ministry acknowledgesthese challengesandexpresses determinationto continue the effortsto resolve these obstacles.

We are organizing visits to the Kurdistan Region to facilitate the rapid return of families, Jabru concluded.The same goes for Jurf al-Sakhar, due to the areas unstable security situation and thepresence ofunexploded ordnance. It is difficult for families to return at the present time.

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Iraq makes major progress in closing camps for the displaced - Al-Monitor