GARHAN, Iraq — Six years after being displaced from their homes in Iraq’s Nineveh province, Ahmed Faisal’s family and ten others have returned to the village of Garhan from Syria’s al-Hol camp.
However, Ahmed has come to regret this decision, with his family still living in a tent without access to basic services.
“Before we returned, they said there would be services, but there is nothing, no water, no electricity. I have two wives and have been forced to leave the camp,” said the father, whose ten children are not enrolled in school.
Pushes to close down displacement camps from authorities in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) and federal Iraq have accelerated.
Aid organizations have warned that rapid closures of camps could lead to further danger for the vulnerable group.
Many are reluctant to return home because of continuing violence in their home areas, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their homes, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps to salvage their homes and livelihoods have been forced to return to the camps, unable to piece together the basics.
Around 25% of the displaced people from Nineveh’s Baaj district fled to Mosul’s al-Salamiya and Jaddah displacement camps. According to Baaj administration numbers, 30% of the district’s houses have been left in ruins.
“We, the people of Baaj, have been displaced. We have returned, but there is nothing,” Saad Matir, another returnee to the area.
Many have now started to return from Syria’s al-Hol camp. They often pay smugglers to escort them across the border to avoid being detained by the Iraqi army or ISIS in the rugged area.
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
