Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Iraq: Conditions and Challenges

RESPOND Policy Brief [2021/11]

Authors: William Warda - Hammurabi Human Rights Organization | Dr. Hamed Shihab - University of Baghdad

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Although Iraq has faced conflict and difficult trials over the past three decades, it had not faced a large internal displacement crisis, until 2014 when Daesh occupied a third of its territory.

In 2014 more than five million Iraqis were forced from their homes. This displacement led to humanitarian repercussions and political, legal, social and cultural confusion in Iraq’s response. Five million IDPs – combined with the demands of organizing and fighting a war against Daesh - prompted public and governmental discussions on a range of complicated challenges, including addressing protection and reception conditions for IDPs, their integration, and finally adopting strategies for IDPs to return to their homes. This debate resulted in a series of plans and programs at the federal, regional and local levels of government.

This policy brief aims to describe the legal and policy aspects of IDP protection in Iraq, as well as capture the experiences, practices, programs relating to the crisis.  This brief seeks to review and compare resulting standards and policies at all of Iraq’s different levels of government with the actual experiences, results and realities of this mass displacement.

2014 saw a historic increase in the number of IDPs in Iraq. The year began with a sharp deterioration of the humanitarian situation due to Daesh attacks in Anbar governorate.  The situation dramatically changed in the summer, when Daesh occupied most of Nineveh governorate (Nineveh is Iraq’s second largest governorate in terms of population) and additional territory in five other provinces.  More than two million Iraqis faced displacement in 2014 thanks to a conflict that featured not just direct and indirect attacks of ISIS, but also counterattacks by Iraqi armed forces supported by Coalition Forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga and irregular armed groups.

The year concluded with a major influx of refugees from Syria from September 25 to December 15 of 2014, further exacerbating the problems facing Iraqi IDPs. As many as 24,000 Syrian refugees crossed the border at Ain al-Arab/Kobani in a single day.

Seven years later, Iraqi IDPs continue to suffer serious problems.Today in 2021, hundreds of thousands remain unable to return to their homes.While the land and homes occupied by Daesh have been retaken, security, economic and military factors have hampered returns.The coronavirus pandemic made matters worse.COVID-19 aggravated problems – already overcrowded camps in Dohuk, Erbil and Nineveh governorates were completely closed with severe restrictions on population movement. Already inadequate health facilities have been hard hit by the pandemic.Meanwhile, worsening economic conditions in Iraq have negatively affected employment for displaced pers.

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