ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s top court is set to rule Sunday on the closure of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region, an official from Iraq’s ministry of migration and displaced told Rudaw.
“If no developments affect the court’s opinion, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court will make a final decision on the closure of the camps today,” Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq’s ministry of migration and displaced, told Rudaw’s Nahro Mohammed.
The lawsuit was filed by Iraqi Minister of Migration and Displaced Evan Faeq Jabro, ordering the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to implement the decision of the Iraqi Council of Ministers to close IDP camps in the Region.
Baghdad has closed most IDP camps in the country and on January it set July 30 as the deadline for the Kurdistan Region to close its camps. Erbil has refused to forcibly close the camps, leading Jabro to file a lawsuit against the Kurdish government.
There are more than 630,000 IDPs in the Kurdistan Region, though most of them reside outside of the 23 camps established across Duhok, Erbil, and Sulaimani provinces, according to figures from the KRG’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center. The Kurdistan Region was hosting several million IDPs at the peak of the conflict with the Islamic State (ISIS).
Iraq says there are over 30,000 IDPs from the southern and central provinces living in the Kurdistan Region’s camps. Baghdad has offered four million dinars to families who return to their homes by July 30 - the date the federal government will cease all aid for IDPs.
On Saturday, the migration and displaced ministry announced the return of 734 IDPs from Ashti camp - the last open camp in Sulaimani province - to their hometowns in Salahaddin and Nineveh province, handing four million dinars as well as basic household appliances to the returning families.
Last week, around 1,000 IDPs from Duhok province’s Sharia and Khanke camps returned to their hometown of Shingal (Sinjar) in Nineveh.
Despite the financial incentive, many families are reluctant to leave because of continuing violence in their hometowns, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their homes, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps have been forced to return, unable to piece together the basics.
Camps in the Kurdistan Region suffer from a lack of funds. In December, a Sulaimani migration department official told Rudaw that residents of Arbat camp were moved to Ashti camp to save money after aid was cut off.
Human rights advocates have expressed concern about Iraq’s push to close the camps and said that all returns must be voluntary.
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