A study led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in conjunction with the Iraqi government found five main reasons why people are not able to go home: problems with housing, earning a living and accessing basic services, social cohesion, security, and mental health issues.
The IOM warned that protracted displacement means IDPs are increasingly neglected and routinely denied their human and economic rights.
“IDPs often face hostile environments in both their places of origin and displacement due to weak state functioning after conflict,” the IOM stated in its report released on Tuesday.
“This leaves them in a state of uncertainty as they seek to meet daily needs regardless of location.”
Millions of Iraqis were displaced in mid-2014 when ISIS militants swarmed across the northwestern part of the country.
Some returned home as their areas were liberated from the terror group and headlines around the world hailed the point when half of all displaced persons had gone home at the start of 2018.
But the rates of returns now appear to be leveling off.
Families Rudaw has spoken to say insecurity, fear of militia groups, and no way to earn a living has kept them in the camps or forced them to be return to camps after trying to go home.
According to the most recent figures from IOM, 4,113,624 Iraqis have returned to their homes, but 1,866,594 are still displaced.
More than half of them, 54 percent, have been displaced for more than three years. Asked what they intend to do in the next year, 64 percent of IDPs said they plan to stay where they are, 11 percent planned to go home, one percent are looking to leave the country or resettle elsewhere within Iraq, and 24 percent are undecided.
Families from Saladin and Kirkuk are most likely to want to go home within the next year while those from Shingal are least willing to do so.
The Kurdistan Region is hosting 1,176,451 registered Iraqi IDPs.
IOM said that some problems causing displacement are “deeper held grievances and root causes of conflict that have plagued Iraq prior to and after 2003.”
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