Iraq's migration ministry said almost 170 displaced Yazidis have returned from the Sharya camp in Dohuk in the Kurdistan Region to their homes in Sinjar, which the ISIS terrorist organization had seized in 2014. The group was defeated in 2019.
Minister Ivan Faiq said that 170 displaced Yazidis returned voluntarily to Sinjar and its affiliated districts and villages in Nineveh in coordination with the security forces, local governments, and the leadership of joint operations.
She indicated that once arriving in their original areas, the returnees will be granted relief aid, adding that the next few days will witness the voluntary return of more displaced people from Dohuk camps to Sinjar.
In response to Asharq Al-Awsat, Ministry of Migration spokesman Ali Abbas Jahangir said there are about 35,500 non-returning families in 26 displacement camps in Dohuk.
Jahangir said authorities closed 148 camps and continue to help those wishing to return to their areas.
The Ministry intends to declare the central and southern governorates free of displacement in the next few months after some of the formerly displaced families settled there.
On Monday, the Department of Immigration and Displacement in Dohuk Governorate announced the return of 85 displaced families to Sinjar as part of the sixth phase of the return process program.
Department director Dian Jaafar said in press statements that the return process is going very slowly, explaining that the program began about two years ago, and since then only 290 families have gone back to Sinjar.
Jaafar pointed out that aid from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which runs the return program, has declined significantly. It is now limited to covering transportation costs, estimated at $1,240 for each returning family.
Much of the reconstruction of infrastructure in Sinjar still needs to be completed, discouraging many families from returning.
Last June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the reconstruction is being held up by a political dispute.
In April 2023, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered the government to allocate $34.2 million for the reconstruction.
"But a political dispute between the federal government Baghdad and Kurdistan Regional Government has prevented other previously allocated funds from being used," said HRW.
On Oct. 19, the Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said politicians and warlords are preventing the return of stability to Sinjar.
Murad called on the Iraqi government to compensate the survivors and ensure the return of the displaced from camps to their areas.
