ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s migration ministry will stop all aid for displaced persons in the Kurdistan Region on July 30, an official from the ministry told Rudaw on Sunday.
“The payment of 4 million dinars [about $2,670] for the Internally Displaced Persons [IDP] who return from the Kurdistan Region camps will continue until July 30, after which the aid will be stopped,” Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq’s ministry of migration and displaced, told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
“After that deadline, apart from stopping that 4-million-dinar aid, we will stop all the other aid from our ministry to the IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
There are more than 630,000 IDPs in the Kurdistan Region, though most of them reside outside of the 23 camps across Duhok, Erbil, and Sulaimani provinces, according to figures from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center.
Despite the financial incentive, many IDPs are reluctant to return home 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 to the camps, unable to piece together the basics in their hometowns.
The camps in the Kurdistan Region also 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.
Baghdad wants to close down all IDP camps in the country. In December 2022, Iraqi Minister of Migration and Displaced Evan Faeq Jabro said all the camps would be closed within six months. Human rights advocates have expressed concern about the push and said that no one should be forced to leave the camps and all returns must be voluntary.
