Iraq’s closure of schools for IDPs sparks fear of forced returns

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi government has decided to close nearly 400 schools established for displaced Arab students in the Kurdistan Region with the new school year, a move some of the students and teachers describe as forced return.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and at least one other Iraqi minister deny they are forcing anyone to return as the country comes out from the war against ISIS that engulfed the country since 2014, destroying houses and the infrastructure including the education sector valued at least $100 billion.

Sana Abas has been teaching Arab IDP students for four years. She was displaced from Baiji, a city south of Mosul — a life back home is not her preference yet.

"I cannot go back because first my house is burned down and rent prices are high. I am from Baiji, and everyone knows it is destroyed. The place no longer exists. It is not suitable for living. Security is not strong there," she told Rudaw, while she asked PM Abadi, and the minister of education to be a "father" to the students and their teachers by reconsidering the decision.

There are in total 376 Iraqi schools in the Kurdish Region, where 219,334 students are enrolled. Baghdad opened such schools in coordination with the Kurdistan Region when more than 1.8 million displaced Iraqis came to Kurdistan following the rise of ISIS in 2014.

"We have received an official letter from the Ministry of Education with the backing of the Council of Ministers, and it will be implemented with the new school year," said Abdulmujib Naif, a supervisor for the Sulaimani office of the Iraqi Ministry of Education.

Iraq announced the defeat of the ISIS group in the entire country in December 2017, a fact the Iraqi official said has paved the way for the displaced to go back to their homes including from the education sector.

Abdulmujib, the education official, claimed that a large number of students are now returning, and therefore they are asking the schools to be closed in the Kurdistan Region.

Students, however, also like their teachers want to stay, citing insecurity, some from as far away as the Iraqi capital that never fell to the ISIS group.

"I do not wish to go back to Baghdad because of explosions and people getting killed, so I wish to spend my life here[in the Kurdistan Region]," Sara Adil, a student said.

Across Iraq, more than 3.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) had gone home by the end of December 2017, while 2.6 million are still displaced, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced on January 4.

A twin bomb attack killed at least 38 people and injured another 100 at al-Taya ran Square in Baghdad on Monday.

"We are faced with threats and my uncles have been kidnapped," Narjis Omer, another student said.

The Kurdistan Region has been relatively peaceful despite waves of sectarian conflict ravaging other parts of Iraq in the mid-2000s, and then again during the ISIS war.

The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights accused parties within the Iraqi government of forcing refugees to return ahead of elections.

"Some political parties within the Iraqi government, especially those controlling Anbar province, work on forcing refugees to return to their places for holding elections on time," the Observatory reported on January 10, adding the areas people are returning to are not yet safe.

Abadi on Tuesday categorically denied that they force anyone to return to the liberated areas, as he asked the media and rights organizations to document any such cases if they have ever occurred.

Darbaz Mohammad, Iraq's minister of immigration and displacement admitted on Wednesday that "drastic measures" may have been taken by individual employees working in the camps, but added that they do not have any records of people being forced to return, and their policy is voluntary return.