Baghdad: The Iraqi government has announced the closure of 144 out of 170 refugee camps across the country over the past few years.
“Only 26 camps out of 170 remain and most of the remaining camps are in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan,” Xinhua news agency quoted Deputy Minister Karim al-Nouri as telling media.
He stressed that most of the displaced people in these camps are residents of the city of Sinjar, about 120 km west of Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, Xinhua news agency reported.
In Sinjar, several armed groups are competing for control of the city despite government efforts to regain administrative control over the area.
“The Ministry of Migration and Displaced Persons is committed to ending this crisis, despite difficult challenges, so that Iraq can get rid of refugee camps,” he said.
According to the UN refugee agency, Iraq hosts approximately 300,000 refugees and asylum seekers, more than 90 percent of whom live in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
There are more than 260,000 Syrians, predominantly Kurds, in addition to refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Turkey, Palestine and other countries.
Insecurity, lack of livelihood and destruction or damage to their homes have hindered their return to their homes.
Currently, more than 1 million Iraqis are internally displaced due to the Islamic State (IS) insurgency, while another 5 million have returned to their areas of origin.
Iraq’s plan to close all displacement camps comes as the security situation in the country has dramatically improved after security forces declared the country’s complete liberation from the IS terrorist group in 2017.
