ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Most of the Yazidis leaving displacement camps and going back to their homes in Shingal (Sinjar) have not received the four million dinars (about $3,050) offered by Baghdad as an incentive to return, the district mayor said on Saturday.
“Most of the returnees have not received the four million dinars,” Nayif Saydo, acting district mayor of Shingal, told Rudaw.
To accelerate the closure of camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) across the country, the Iraqi government has offered returning families four million Iraqi dinars along with some basic household items including a fridge, a stove, and a television.
The cash incentive was previously 1.5 million dinars before Baghdad upped it to four million to speed up returns, but Saydo said most families have not even received the 1.5 million.
This non-payment has stopped the return of IDPs, according to Saydo.
Despite Baghdad’s financial incentives, 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 in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left have been forced to return to the camps, unable to piece together the basics.
In late December, Iraq’s migration and displaced ministry acknowledged that IDP returnees in the Kurdistan Region have decreased.
There are more than one million IDPs in Iraq. Most of them are living in private accommodation and 115,000 are living in 21 camps in the Kurdistan Region, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Many of the camps in the Kurdistan Region suffer from a lack of funds, as the focus of humanitarian agencies has shifted from emergency response to development and stabilization.
Human rights advocates have expressed concern about Iraq’s push to close the camps, saying that all returns must be safe, voluntary, and dignified.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
