ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s migration and displaced ministry said on Wednesday that about 23,000 Iraqi families remain in camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil and Duhok provinces but that returns have slowed down.
“The number of families remaining in camps in Erbil and Duhok provinces is approximately 23,000, while the IDP camps in Sulaimani province have been closed,” ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas told Rudaw.
Abbas said that the ministry supports IDPs who seek to return to their hometowns but that “the return of IDPs has slowed down … it will increase with the start of the summer break and the end of the current school year.”
On Saturday, Abbas told Rudaw that compensation for IDPs who want to return to their homes has been paused due to a lack of funds, which has slowed down the return process.
The Iraqi government last year said it would give four million dinars (about $3,050) to each returning family, one of several measures to encourage people to leave the camps. Other incentives include providing job opportunities in both the public and private sectors, providing monthly social security stipends for low-income and needy individuals, and offering interest-free bank loans.
In 2024, “more than 10,000 displaced families, which is more than 100,000 people, have returned to their homes across Iraq,” Abbas told Rudaw in December.
Many of the camps in the Kurdistan Region suffer from a lack of funds, as the humanitarian focus has shifted from emergency response to development and stabilization.
Human rights advocates have expressed concern about Iraq’s push to close the camps, stressing that all returns must be safe, voluntary, and dignified.
Despite the incentives from Baghdad, many families are reluctant to leave the camps because of continued violence in their home areas, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their houses, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps have been forced to return.
Mushtaq Ramadhan contributed to this report.
