Iraqi Government Postpones Closure of Camps for IS Refugees

The Iraqi government has agreed to postpone the closure of longstanding refugee camps located in the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which have long-housed individuals displaced by the Islamic State years earlier, according to both Kurdish and Iraqi government sources.  

Earlier this year, Baghdad announced a plan to close the camps by July 30; however, following protests by the Kurdish government in Erbil, the two sides have reportedly reached a new agreement that pushes this back to the end of the year, according to one Kurdish official.  

While the Iraqi government has not yet made any public comments about the change, one Iraqi official aware of the negotiations confirmed that the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office had fully agreed to postpone the closure.  

“A committee has been formed from the central government, the regional government, and international organizations to assess the situation of displaced persons’ return and to provide the appropriate atmosphere for their return,” he said. “The return will be voluntary and not forced.”  

The original plan of the Iraqi government called for paying camp occupants who left the camps four million dinars, or roughly $3,000, to return to their original communities. 

However, many of the camp’s inhabitants are members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority and hail from the remote Sinjar province, a region that Kurdish authorities say is still too unsafe.  

When the Islamic State came to power, it subjected the Yazidi people to horrific levels of violence and persecution. 

For this reason, Kurdish authorities refused to execute Baghdad’s earlier order to evacuate the camps within the original time frame.  

Only 43% of the 300,000 people displaced from Sinjar have since returned, according to the International Organization for Migration.