Baghdad, Iraq
All camps in the past allocated to thousands of internal migrants who took refuge in Iraqi cities because of attacks by the Daesh/ISIS terrorist organization will be closed within six months, an official said Thursday.
Iraq’s Minister of Immigration and Displacement, Ivan Faik Jabro, said that as part of the government’s plans for 2023, the camps will be closed in about six months and migrants will be sent home.
He noted that other ministries will also make the allocation and that mandatory positive living situations will be provided to migrants wherever they return.
Jabro under pressure that the infrastructure of immigrant-owned places that have been rendered unusable by attacks by the Daesh/ISIS terrorist organization deserves to be rezoned.
“Infrastructure, water, electricity and municipal equipment will have to be provided in immigration spaces as soon as possible,” Jabro said. “During the next six months, the relevant ministries will have to definitively fulfill their functions.
“It will also be necessary to guarantee security in the most productive way imaginable in the spaces of return of immigrants,” he said.
Initiative for three hundred families in Türkiye
Jabro said that three hundred families forced to leave the country by the attacks are in Turkey and 8,000 are migrants in Syria, and stressed that the official initiative required for families has been launched.
After the government’s resolution was announced, between 500 and 700 families remaining in the camps began arrangements for their return, he said.
“The biggest impediment in this regard is that the houses are unusable,” he said. “The worst example of this would be the villages in the Sinjar district of Mosul. “
53 camps with 37,000 immigrants inside
Ministry spokesman Ali Jahangir said there are 26 camps in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and one in Mosul.
Stating that there are 4 camps in Sulaymaniyah, six in Erbil and 16 in Duhok, Jahangir said there are 37,000 migrant families in the camps.
He noted that the population of Sinjar district usually stays in the camps, about 27,000 families.
The Daesh/ISIS terrorist organization captured all the provinces of Mosul, Saladin and Anbar, as well as parts of the cities of Diyala and Kirkuk in 2014, and those spaces have been retaken over the years.
Former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory against the terrorist on December 9, 2017.
Although years have passed, the organization’s attacks continue in rural areas.
Nine federal police officers were killed in a bomb attack organized through the organization on December 25, 2022.
In 2013, Turkey was one of the first countries to claim that Daesh/ISIS is a terrorist group.
Since then, Turkey has been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists, killing another 315 people and wounding thousands in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings and four armed attacks.
In response, Türkiye introduced counterterrorism operations at home and to prevent further attacks.
*Written through Merve Berker