ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced on Sunday the return of 296 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from a camp near Mosul to their areas of origin in Nineveh.
Senior ministry official Ali Abbas Jahakir said that the IDPs returned from Khazer camp, east of Mosul, to various areas across the province.
"The returned families have been checked in coordination with the security forces and local governments,” Jahakir said.
Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Paliament, Hassan al-Kaabi, met on Sunday with officials from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), calling for “solid laws” to tackle displacement, and an international conference to raise awareness of displacement in Iraq.
In June, almost 200 families in al-Jada camp returned to their homes in Mosul and Salahaddin.
Al-Jada, in Nineveh province, is one of just two camps still open in areas under federal Iraqi control. The camp mainly houses families with suspected links to the Islamic State group (ISIS), and received ISIS-affiliated families from al-Hol camp in Syria late in May.
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.
Many displaced Iraqis are reluctant to return home because of continuing violence in their home areas, a lack of reconstruction, 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.
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