SHINGAL, IRAQ – In three weeks, 900 internally displaced families have left Sardasht camp to return to their homes elsewhere in Shingal, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement. Yezidi IDPs have been living in camps like Sardasht since 2014, when the Islamic State (ISIS) ravaged the Yezidi heartland of Shingal. While some camp residents like Sardasht camp mukhtar Khalid Ali are ready to return, others don't want to go back to housing inadequate for even the most basic of their needs. "My house is built with clay bricks and the roof is leaking water," Khalid Ali, an IDP from Shingal said. "It has no door or windows. How can I go back to a house that leaks?" The Iraqi government and its Ministry of Migration and Displacement have decided that all IDPs at Sardasht camp, where 2,300 families once lived, are to return to their homes by the end of the year. Local officials have said that more needs to be done to make Shingal a livable environment. "We should do something for these people. There should be a committee to investigate the need [to reconstruct] houses which have been blown up," Shingal mayor Fahd Hamid said. "The Ministry of Migration and Displacement have to have mercy on these families for them to return to their hometowns and villages." An office for the affairs of Shingal's displaced was opened by the Minister for Migration and Displacement and the Governor of Mosul on Wednesday. They have decided to give families returning to their homes in Shingal 1.5 million Iraqi dinars ($1,200). In the last two weeks, three high-ranking Iraqi delegations have visited Shingal, with the aim of reconstructing the area and returning IDPs to their homes. Reporting by Tahsin Qasim Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
