SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Minister of Migration and Displaced Evan Faiq Jabro said at least 10 displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region will be closed in the near future, as part of Baghdad’s plan to shut down camps in the country.
Minister Jabro said in an interview with Iraqiya channel on Wednesday that her ministry was ready to close the camps for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees in the Region.
Kurdistan Region’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC) said in December that the Region sheltered 992,732 displaced persons and refugees.
Twenty-nine percent of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees live in 35 camps in Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok, according to the JCC.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians left their homes after Islamic State (ISIS) militants overran large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Many who were displaced fled towards the Kurdistan Region given its relative stability and security.
The migration ministry says the closures are part of a program of “safe and voluntary return” but critics say they are badly coordinated and premature while much former Islamic State (ISIS) territory lies in ruins or under the control of groups hostile to those returning.
Minister Jabro said as many as 140 displacement camps had been closed in the past six months, according to Iraqi state news agency INA.
“The camps were like closed prisons for the displaced, and the ministry faced great challenges in the process of closing them,” Jabro added.
“The displacement camps were a source of livelihood for some political forces,” she noted, stressing that there were parties whose interests damaged due to the closure of the camps.
