ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The federal government has launched an “emergency plan” to provide housing for Iraq’s internally displaced amid ongoing camp closures, an Iraqi official told Rudaw on Monday.
The Ministry of Migration and Displacement has launched an emergency plan to rent houses for displaced people who cannot return to their areas due to either “tribal conflict” or a lack of rebuilding, Minister Evan Jabro told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz.
“It is an Iraqi citizen’s right to live a proud life in a safe and secure environment,” Jabro said.
The ministry's mid-October decision to accelerate camp closures with limited notice to camp residents has left many displaced families vulnerable. The move has put more than 100,000 people in "tremendous peril", according to the Norweigian Refugee Council (NRC).
Jabro said the ministry has now formed a committee to settle tribal disputes between the camp residents and their local communities, and “has prepared alternative areas to live in until this issue is resolved."
Housing will also be provided for people who cannot return home because of a lack of rebuilding in the area.
Returning families have been promised a grant to help them resettle back into their communities, which will be paid in December, according to the minister.
A UN official expressed "grave concern" over the camp closures in a statement published Monday, saying 11 camps have been closed or "consolidated" since mid-October.
"This is not about camp closures. It is about what will happen to those Iraqis, their safety, their wellbeing and their future," said the UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Irena Vojackova-Sollorano.
"Vulnerable displaced populations need more active support to rebuild their lives in dignity" she added.
The Islamic State group (ISIS) seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014, forcing millions of people to flee. Many of the displaced fled to the relative safety of the Kurdistan Region, but others remained in federal Iraq.
Salahaddin and Kirkuk will be “free of camps” in the coming days, the minister said.
“We have data that most refugees in the Kurdistan Region want to return home, especially those inside the camps of Khazir, Hassan al-Sham and those in Sulaimani,” he added.
Many Yazidis in Kurdistan Region camps have returned to their destroyed heartland of Shingal in Nineveh province in recent months, citing the coronavirus pandemic and fear of fire in the badly-constructed camps.
Three years after the defeat of Islamic State (ISIS), nearly 1.3 million people remain displaced across Iraq.
Updated at 7.02pm
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