Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration on Monday hailed the successful return of IDPs to villages in Nineveh. The move indicates an overall improvement in the security situation since the region was retaken from Islamic State (ISIS) militants in 2017.
It follows the return of 423 Nineveh IDPs in mid-July.
However, many IDPs who earlier returned to Nineveh found security conditions unstable, public services lacking, and a shortage of job opportunities to support their families. With little state support on hand, many chose to return to the camps.
The Iraqi government is providing a mere 1.5 million Iraqi dinars ($1,258) per household to restore their homes.
Of the 421 returnees announced on Monday, 235 were residents of Saladin’s al-Ilim Wa al-Karama camp, 64 of the Kurdistan Region’s Khazir camp, and 122 of three camps in southern Mosul, said Ali Abbas Jahagir, director general of the ministry’s branch affairs department, in a statement.
“The ministry, in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Transport and the Joint Operations [Command], allocated busses and vehicles for the returnee families to be transported and to have their possessions moved freely,” Jahagir said.
The IDPs have been resettled in villages to the east and west of Mosul, the district of Baaj, Shirqat, and other areas of the province.
Despite these efforts, many returnees do not appear to stay long, opting to return to the relative safety and security of the camps.
According to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of the Interior, more than 7,000 Iraqi IDPs have come back to its camps during the first six months of 2019 alone after failing to reestablish their homes and livelihoods in Nineveh.
IDPs who spoke to Rudaw gave several reasons for their return to the camps, including a shortage of jobs, slow progress on reconstruction, and poor security.
In contrast to the hard existence awaiting them in Nineveh, IDPs receive food, medical, and educational support from local and international aid agencies in the Kurdistan Region’s camps. It is also possible to secure work in nearby towns and cities.
Reconstruction work in Nineveh has been slow, in part because of rampant corruption.
Iraq’s Integrity Commission, an independent body overseen by the Iraqi parliament, announced on July 30 it had recovered 11 billion Iraqi dinars which had been allocated for Nineveh’s IDPs. The funds had been embezzled by local officials.
The area has also been starved of international aid and federal funding.
In February 2018, donor countries participating in a conference in Kuwait pledged $30 billion for Iraq’s reconstruction – short of the estimated $88 billion required. Little of this money has been delivered.
Provincial officials were also disappointed with their share of the 2019 federal budget.
Although more than 4.2 million people across Iraq have been returned to their areas of origin since ISIS was territorially defeated in late-2017, 1.6 million Iraqis are still displaced, according to IOM Iraq’s Displacement Tracking Matrix.
