The Kurdistan Region’s Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) on Sunday reported that in January 2021 over 1,300 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees arrived at Kurdistan Region.
“The displacement process is continuing to Kurdistan Region. On January 2021 nearly 1,307 IDPs and Refugees arrived at Kurdistan Region,” the JCC said.
According to the JCC report the return to the region’s displacement camps is due to poor living conditions, lack of job opportunities and lack of services, instability, and security in their places of origin.
Iraq’s economy, including that of the Kurdistan Region, has further suffered from an economic crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting drop in oil prices.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials have earlier announced that the number of displaced people coming from within Iraq to the Kurdistan Region continues to increase, despite a plan prepared by the federal government to "end the displacement file" by the end of 2020, a self-imposed deadline that has since passed.
According to the JCC, the IDPs and refugees “are still seeking to return to camps to register with the Kurdistan Regional Camps Administration.”
In mid-October, the federal government announced a plan to start the closure of displacement camps across the country in three phases, the last of which would be those in the Kurdistan Region.
However, Kurdish officials say they will not close any camps for IDPs from multiple areas within Iraq unless it is assured that those areas are safe for civilians.
Nearly 112 families and 476 individuals of IDPs newly entered to the camps in Erbil province; 152 families and 752 individuals arrived at a camp in Duhok province; two individuals also newly entered camps in Sulaimani.
A number of refugees also arrived at the camps, including 7 families and 34 individuals who entered camps in the Erbil province. In Sulaymaniyah, 11 families and 43 individuals entered camps.
Also, a total of 3,619 individuals, the majority of which are IDPs 3,473, returned to their places of origin or migrated.
“Syrian refugees have left the Kurdistan Region either returning to their places of origin in the liberated areas or migrated to Europe and other countries legally and through other means,” the JCC.
According to the JCC statistics for the month of January, there were still 930,550 IDPs and refugees in the Kurdistan Region in January 2021: a total of 671,238 IDPs, and also 239,476 Syrian, 8,551 Turkish, 10,572 Iranian, and 713 Palestinian refugees.
The majority of IDPs and refugees live with the host communities in the Region, while only (30%) living in the (35) camps, and (70%) live in outside camps. 41% of the total displaced population live in Erbil, 41% in Duhok, and 18% in Sulaymaniyah.
SOURCE: Kursdistan24
