Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

600,000 Displaced Families Return Home in Iraq


Tue 05 Jul 2022 | 07:19 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Even five years after ISIS was militarily defeated, displacement in Iraq continues to be a burden for Baghdad's government, Kurdistan's government, and international organisations.

Ali Abbas Jahakir, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement, claims that 900,000 households have been uprooted overall, with roughly 600,000 of them having returned home.

According to Jahakir, there are 26 displacement camps spread across the governorates of the Kurdistan region, including a rehabilitation centre in Mosul and 16 in Dohuk, six in Erbil, four in Sulaymaniyah, and one in al-Jada.

37,000 families, comprising 170,000 people of all ages, are residing in these camps, he continued.

After the advent of ISIS in June 2014, according to Jahakir, 900,000 families fled combat zones in the western and northern governorates, according to official data backed up by the Ministry of Immigration.

The residual figure of 300,000 families is incorrect because many of them, particularly the Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak, and Christian minority, departed the country, he claimed, adding that 600,000 families have already returned to their towns.

Many returnees, according to the spokesman, did not officially register their return for a number of reasons.

Previously, the Ministry of Immigration offered the displaced people the option of staying in camps rather than forcing them to return to their homes.

After the advent of ISIS in June 2014, according to Jahakir, 900,000 families fled combat zones in the western and northern governorates, according to official data backed up by the Ministry of Immigration.

The residual figure of 300,000 families is incorrect because many of them, particularly the Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak, and Christian minority, departed the country, he claimed, adding that 600,000 families have already returned to their towns.

Many returnees, according to the spokesman, did not officially register their return for a number of reasons.

Previously, the Ministry of Immigration offered the displaced people the option of staying in camps rather than forcing them to return to their homes.

Ali-Ahmed added that part of the project aims to coordinate with the demining units of the military force, asserting that rehabilitating the infrastructure cannot take place without removing mines.