The migration ministry has suggested to some families they consider moving to other areas of the country if they can’t go home, the Minister of Migration and Displacement, Evan Faeq Jabro, said in an interview with state TV on Thursday.
Al-Jada in Nineveh province is one of just two camps still open in Iraq, outside of the Kurdistan Region. Security concerns are preventing families living in al-Jada from going home, Jabro said. The camp mainly houses families with suspected links to the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Displaced people from Jurf al-Sakhar in Babil province are also unable to return home. The town was evacuated during the war against ISIS and security forces and Shiite militias are preventing their return, citing dangers from mines planted by ISIS. Sunni lawmakers have accused the militias of trying to change the demography of the area.
The minister did not give details of what other areas these families could go to.
The Iraqi government also wants Iraqis sheltering in the Kurdistan Region to return home. There are about 39,000 Iraqi families living in Kurdistan Region camps, according to Jabro.
Iraqi forces have helped 7,420 families living in these camps to return to Shingal and Zummar in Nineveh province, the military’s Security Media Cell said in a statement on Thursday.
Some families refuse to return to Shingal for "political" reasons, said Aswan al-Kaldani, the head of the Babylon parliamentary bloc. Funds given to these families are also not enough for them to rebuild their homes and lives, Kaldani added. "The return grant, which amounts to one and a half million dinars, is insufficient for the displaced to return and settle."
Last year, the Iraqi government began a push to close 17 camps around the country, three years after the defeat of ISIS, including in the Kurdistan Region. The government has been criticized for this policy. Rights monitors say returns must be voluntary.
"We do not want the forced return of the displaced to their areas, or moving them to places that lack services,” Firas al-Khatib, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Rudaw in an interview on Friday.
But he acknowledged that living in camps indefinitely is not a viable option. "It is possible for a refugee to stay in a camp for more than 17 years and perhaps more, so other solutions must be sought,” he said.
Six million Iraqis were displaced in the war with ISIS. More than 4.8 million of them have returned home, according to UN figures.
Many displaced Iraqis are reluctant to return home because of continuing violence in their home areas, lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their homes, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps to salvage their homes and livelihoods have been forced to return to the camps, unable to piece together the basics.
UNHCR’s Khatib described Erbil as a refugee-friendly city, saying it is among the first 12 cities in the world to offer coronavirus vaccines to refugee and displaced populations.
The Kurdistan Region is hosting over 928,000 refugees and displaced persons, the majority of whom do not live in the camps.
