An international organization: 320,000 families are still displaced in Iraq

[size=52]An international organization: 320,000 families are still displaced in Iraq[/size]

[size=45]Translation / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]In a new report, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed that after the closure of camps for the displaced in each of the governorates of Baghdad, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din and Diyala for the period between 2020 and 2021, there are still about 320,000 thousand families, amounting to 1,198,940 One million people are living in displacement in poor living conditions, and many of them have not been able to return to their original areas of residence for many reasons, including the lack of a home to accommodate them.[/size]
[size=45]The organization stated in its report for the month of June that the number of displaced people since the invasion of Iraq by ISIS more than six years ago has reached more than 6 million people, and the number of those who have returned to their areas of residence so far has reached 4,867,050 people, while the number of those who are still displaced has reached As of writing this report, it is about 1,198,940 million people, including the camps of the Kurdistan region and Anbar Governorate, which have not yet closed, as many of them are unable to return to their original areas of residence and suffer from severe food shortages, scarcity of living resources, and lack of healthy water, electricity or fuel for cooking and heating And many other problems related to health and education.[/size]
[size=45]The organization says that in preparing this report, it relied on field research and documentation that lasted for several months for the period from August 2020 to April 2021 and on international documents as well, including the United Nations report issued in June 2020, as well as conducting 20 interviews with displaced persons, camp managers and eyewitnesses, and obtaining information Detailed on the humanitarian situation in Iraq in relation to official IDP camps and IDPs scattered in informal settlement sites. In 2020, the Iraqi authorities closed five camps for the displaced in Nineveh Governorate and two camps in Kirkuk Governorate, namely, Laylan camp, Yahya camp, Ishaqi camp in Salah al-Din governorate, three camps in Diyala governorate and three camps in the capital, Baghdad. As for the Kurdistan region and Anbar Governorate, they are the two regions where the camps are still open and have not been closed despite plans to close the camps, which include most of the Iraqi cities. In the Kurdistan region, there are 10 camps distributed between each of the governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah, housing more than 9 thousand families, which have not been closed yet, and there are no plans to close them. In Anbar Governorate, there are also four camps, and it is the only governorate in which a camp has not been closed and is still open and there is no current plan to close it. These are Ameriyat al-Fallujah camp, which includes 1,000 families, Habbaniyah camp, which includes 400 families, Kilo 18 camp, which includes 400 families, and Bzeibiz camp, which includes 1,200 families.[/size]
[size=45]The organization revealed in its report that dozens of families who were expelled from their camps after their closure in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Diyala and the rest of the families in the camps for the displaced suffer from difficult humanitarian conditions, and many of them were unable to return to their areas of residence.[/size]
[size=45]According to testimonies from IDPs in Al-Jada'a 1 and Al-Jada'a 5 camps in Nineveh Governorate, they refused to leave the camp until security services were provided in their areas before returning, especially in the areas of Hatra, Sinjar and Al-Baaj that were not subject to reconstruction, or that reconstruction efforts are slow. Because of the destruction in their homes and other security and social conditions.[/size]
[size=45]A displaced woman from Mosul, in her fifties, who was residing in Hammam al-Alil camp, said in an interview with Euro-Med Organization, “I have been living with my children in this camp since 2017, and it feels like my home. I have no one to take care of me and I have no monthly income. The closure of this camp will break me, and I will have to struggle to survive after being taken out. Winter is coming and I do not know how to protect my children and myself, and that my house in Mosul is destroyed and has not been reconstructed. I will be homeless.”[/size]
[size=45]The organization states that despite the closure of the two camps completely, some families were prevented from returning to their original areas of residence, especially in neighborhoods such as southern Mosul, Sinjar and Salah al-Din. This is for reasons related to their suspected links with ISIS militants, and that more than 300 families have been prevented from returning and forced to migrate again to random areas.[/size]
[size=45]Another displaced woman from the city of Tikrit, who was residing in Laylan camp in Kirkuk, who is now residing in a slum in Kirkuk after being expelled from the camp, says, “I had to live in a slum camp due to security conditions in my original residential area in Tikrit. My husband passed away a long time ago, and my 17-year-old son and I are trying to find a job, but to no avail. I suffer from a chest disease and there is no cure, and days passed when we did not find food.”[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that, on November 12, the Iraqi authorities closed the Ishaqi camp in Balad, south of Salah al-Din Governorate, and that all 60 families were unable to return to their original areas of residence after the lack of security, and some of them set up tents and another rented Houses in the Ishaqi area.[/size]
[size=45]In Anbar Governorate, which is the only governorate that has not closed the camps for the displaced, which are the three camps of Amiriya Al-Fallujah, Al-Habbaniyah and Bzeibiz, which contain about 3,000 families. We do not have any health or educational services here. Our living conditions are miserable. Since the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, neither the Ministry of Immigration nor the aid organizations are providing us with assistance as they used to.”[/size]
[size=45]The organization also recommended to the international community the need to ensure the return of the displaced to their original areas of residence, especially the areas that did not suffer serious damage, while providing the remaining camps with food and health services, as well as the need for international organizations to do their duty to activate reconstruction efforts and stimulate efforts aimed at activating the values ​​of peaceful social coexistence and the rule of law. Law.[/size]
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