Iraq sets time limit for ending file of displaced: Most prominent obstacles

Mohamed Shaat

Iraq has recently shown increasing interest in the file of the displaced and their return to their homes. In a new step, President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid on Tuesday stressed the need to end the file within a time limit.

According to a statement from the presidency’s media office, which was reported by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), President Rashid received the director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) in Iraq, Wael Al-Ashhab, and his accompanying delegation at the presidential palace in Baghdad.

During the meeting, Rashid stressed “the necessity of concerted and intensified efforts to end the file of the displaced within a time limit that does not exceed the end of the year 2024, and work to ensure a safe and stable return to their cities and homes with the provision of basic services.”

He pointed out that “this will be achieved through strengthening cooperation and joint coordination between government agencies and international organizations concerned with the displaced.”

Meanwhile, Ashhab and members of the UN delegation reviewed the progress of UN-Habitat’s work in the country and the future plans set to resolve this issue by returning all the displaced to their homes.

Thousands of displaced

In July, Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced the return of 189 displaced Yazidis to their areas of residence in the district of Sinjar, Nineveh Governorate, after they were displaced byISIS during its invasion of the region in 2014.

In a statement, Migration Minister Evan Faeq Gabro said that “189 displaced Yazidi persons have returned from the displacement camps in Dohuk Governorate to their areas of original residence in the Sinjar district of Nineveh Governorate,” confirming that “the ministry’s cadres are continuing to register the displaced families who wish to return,” according to INA.

In May, the ministry issued statistics on the current number of camps and the number of displaced people living in them.

INA quoted the director of the branch department in the ministry, Ali Abbas, as saying, “The number of camps in the Kurdistan region is 26, including 16 camps in Dohuk, six camps in Erbil, and four camps in Sulaymaniyah.”

Abbas added that the displaced people who live in these camps number about 36,000 families, noting that “most of the displaced people are from the Sinjar district in Nineveh Governorate, as well as from the governorates of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Diyala.”

Complex file

Iraqi political analyst Yassin Aziz said in exclusive statements to the Reference that the file of the displaced is very complex, as it transcends the human dimension to a political dimension encapsulated in a security dimension, and the handling of this file is taking place very slowly amid procrastination by influential parties that seem stronger than the official authority in some areas, which keeps the government’s plans stalled.

Aziz considered that setting any date to end or close the file of the displaced will not be easy, and matters remain linked to the extent of the strength and control of the official executive institution over areas whose residents have been displaced for political, security and sectarian dimensions, but without achieving this, the matter will take quite a long time. He noted that previous agreements were made, especially between the Kurdistan regional government and the federal government, given that most of the displaced are inside the Kurdistan region, but the lack of a strong mechanism for implementing plans and agreements prevents adherence to the timings set by the authorities.

Regarding what international support represents for the completion of the file, Aziz said that international support exists, adding that UN-Habitat and other international organizations are well prepared, but they need a secure atmosphere in order to operate, which still is not available in the form that the international organization wants, especially in some regions, including in the Bagdad belt.