The governor of the northern province Saladin says he will take steps to close displaced people camps to prevent them from becoming “incubators of extremism” amidst reports displaced Iraqis are being forcibly returned to their homes.
Addressed to Iraqi army officials and tribal leaders on Monday, Saladin Governor Ammar Jabr Khalil released a statement saying the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp threatened peace in the area.
“Ammar Jabr Khalil, the governor of Saladin, affirmed his intent to finalize procedures of closing IDP camps and secure the return of the residents to their areas through an agreement with the government and tribes to prevent these camps from becoming incubators of extremism and threatening social peace,” the statement from the governor’s Facebook page read.
In the entire Saladin province, there are 105,390 IDPs, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) spokesman Tom Peyre-Costa told Rudaw English on Tuesday. According to UN statistics, there are more than 10,000 IDPs in several camps near Tikrit - the capital of the Saladin province.
There has to be “social reconciliation” for families with Islamic State (ISIS) ties, and tribal leaders and prominent individuals need to step in to resolve the “social case,” according to the governor.
“Daesh families remaining outside the social fabric don’t serve stability, but rather pave the road for overlapping breaches [of security],” read the statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
The governor did not specify several details in the statement however, including what “social reconciliation” would entail, and where the IDPs will go if the camps are closed.
Deputy governor of Saladin Saad Dhahir Qaisi was not available to comment on the details of the province’s plan to close IDP camps, nor was head of the Saladin provincial council Ahmed al-Karim when Rudaw English contacted them on Tuesday.
In an interview with Rudaw English in May, Qaisi said there is a financial incentive for keeping IDPs in camps.
“The state spends on these camps. There are parties and employees taking advantage of that,” he said. “They don’t want the camp to be gone.”
He also suggested using psychologists and Islamic education to re-integrate ISIS families into society.
The fears of the governor, namely of IDP camps being a hotbed for renewed extremist thoughts, were also espoused by an aide to Iraq’s national security adviser at the end of August. 2
"Daesh has ended, but the extremists’ thoughts remain, thoughts that could lead to terrorism, through which Daesh could resurge,” Ali Nassir Binyan, aide to Faleh Fayadh, Iraqi national security adviser, told Rudaw. “We believe that some of these thoughts persist in the IDP camps.”
According to Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displaced, they will soon close the al-Qadisyah compound in the Saladin province hosting IDPs, as only 39 families remain. The ministry said on August 28 that 864 IDPs at the compound had gone back to their areas in the Nineveh province.
While the ministry does claim that all returnees go back voluntarily, rights groups have recorded a host of examples of IDPs being forced to return to their homes despite a lack of services and community threats against returnees.
Some 2,000 IDPs have been expelled from camps in Nineveh to their areas of origin in Saladin, Kirkuk, and Anbar, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
There is further pressure on IDPs to return due to politics. As per a recent amendment of Iraq’s provincial election law, individuals can only vote in the upcoming provincial elections if they live in their areas of origin.
Some IDPs have also returned home to the Mosul area this year, only to later return to camps in the Kurdistan Region, citing poor security and living conditions in their home areas.
.png&w=3840&q=75)