Internally displaced persons in Iraq

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The number of people who are currently displaced inside Iraq is estimated to be 3 million, almost one out of every ten Iraqis. [1] This figure is cumulative and represents both those displaced before and after the 2003 US-led invasion. Displacement in Iraq is "chronic and complex:" since the 1960s Iraq has produced the largest population of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees of any state in the Middle East.

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Under the Ba'athist regime, an estimated 1.2 million people were internally displaced as a result of factors that include the Iran–Iraq War and policies of forced displacement that were intended to quell resistance and consolidate the control of territory, particularly in the Kurdish northern and Shiite southern area. [2]

In the period directly following the 2003 invasion, population displacement was largely the result of US-led military operations against insurgents, especially in Sunni areas. Such displacements were generally temporary.

Internal displacement increased dramatically after the February 2006 bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra. Rising sectarian violence contributed to the displacement of approximately 1.5 million Iraqis between 2006 and 2009, bringing the total displaced population to around 2.7 million.

Since August 2014, and the expansion of ISIS in Iraq, the number of internally displaced Iraqis has risen from 1.7 to 3 million, peaking at 3.4 million in March 2016 .

Persistent insecurity and other factors have prevented many Iraqis from returning to their homes, but people are slowly beginning to return.

Estimates rely heavily on the number of people who have registered as IDPs with the government or with assistance organizations. Registration remains voluntary, however, and requires documentation that displaced persons may lack. [2]

Demographics

According to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, over 80% of the displaced are women and young children. (IRCS June 2008). IDMC reports that most displaced women are single or unaccompanied, and the elderly also make a large part of the displaced population. [2]

Approximately 58% of IDPs are Sunni Arabs, 29% are Shi'a Arabs, and 13% are minorities such as Shabaks, Christians, Armenians, and others. [2]

Baghdad is the center of post-2003 displacement: around 60% of Iraqis displaced since then have come from Baghdad, and the city also hosts around 40% of the displaced population. Fleeing or fearing sectarian violence, many Baghdad residents left their homes to move to neighborhoods inhabited by those of the same religious, tribal, or sectarian group. This process has led to the homogenization of communities in the capital city and throughout the country.

Driven by the crisis in Mosul, Ninema and Dohuk governorates are currently the source of the largest number of IDPs in Iraq . Many displaced persons have also resettled in the Kurdish region of Iraq, but persistent tensions over governorate borders in this multi-ethnic area have caused further population displacements. [3]

Barriers to return

Of those who have been internally displaced in the post-Saddam era, approximately 300,000 have returned home. [3] Millions of Iraqis remain displaced within the borders of Iraq and in neighboring countries.

Security concerns continue to affect displaced populations. Despite the general decrease in conflict since 2006–07, political uncertainties and the persistence of bombings, kidnappings and other incidents of violence – including those that target Christians and other minorities – have deterred people from trying to return home. The homogenization of neighborhoods along ethnic or sectarian lines may also contribute to the reluctance on the part of former inhabitants to return to the communities from which they fled.

The quality of life in Iraq has decreased dramatically since 2003 [4] and therefore economic and livelihood factors also play a major role in the complex decision-making processes of displaced Iraqis. [3] Unemployment is endemic in Iraq and many IDPs, particularly women, do not have adequate access to employment opportunities. Many have also had their homes destroyed or occupied by others and must find alternative sources of shelter for themselves and their families. UNHCR estimates that over one million internally displaced Iraqis need assistance with food and shelter. [4] In many neighborhoods, access to essential services such as clean water, electricity, basic health care, and education is still inadequate. [5] Such challenges may create barriers not only to return but to subsistence.

A third barrier to return is the challenge of resolving land disputes. The Government of Iraq has taken measures to restore private property ownership and to resolve conflicts over land, but these policies so far have had a limited impact. [2]

Interviews with Iraqi IDPs have revealed that, given the security and socio-economic barriers to return, many would prefer to integrate into their new communities or to relocate somewhere else. [3]

Policy of the Iraqi government

Iraq established the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) in August 2003 in order to assist IDPs, refugees, and returnees. [6] MoDM has established a presence in most governorates and has worked to facilitate the process of registration and return throughout Iraq. [2] Nevertheless, critics of MoDM allege that it was unprepared to handle the post-2006 surge in displacement, and that it currently lacks the manpower, expertise, and resources to be effective and to coordinate and strategize large-scale returns in the future. [4] Earlier this year, Azhar Al-Mousawi, Deputy Minister for Displacement and Migration, revealed that the Iraqi government had allocated MoDM only $250 million of the $416–500 million needed to implement its programs. [5]

In partnership with organizations such as UNHCR, various types of centers have been established, particularly in Baghdad, to provide protection, registration, legal advice, financial assistance, and referrals to displaced persons. [2] [5] Registered IDPs may receive a financial assistance package valued at around $850. Those living in formerly occupied residences may receive a six-month rental assistance package to vacate the lot so that former residents can return. Despite such incentives, the rate of registration and application for assistance among IDPs remains low, as does the rate of applicants actually receiving aid. [7]

The Government of Iraq has also taken steps to resolve disputes over private property that have impeded the ability of displaced persons to return. The Commission for the Resolution of Real Property Disputes was established in 2006 to handle disputes arising from the time of the Baathist regime. [8] In 2009, only 1,000 of the 152,000 claims it received had resulted in an enforced decision. [9] This Commission is scheduled to be replaced by another that will also take property destruction that occurred under the Saddam regime into account. Similar provisions have been made to address post-2003 land disputes (Order 101) despite this, most claims from both the pre and post-2003 eras remain unresolved. [3] Challenges also include addressing issues such as destroyed property, loss of businesses, and land sales made under duress. Some have argued that government policies towards IDPs have focused on return, and that little support has been offered for displaced persons who wish to integrate locally or to resettle elsewhere. [2] The official government plan for 2011 mentions assistance for integration and resettlement as well as return. [5] In 2008, MoDM introduced a National Policy on Displacement that outlined the rights of Iraqi IDPs and the duties of the Iraq government towards its displaced population. This policy has not yet been passed into law, nor have plans yet been made to implement it. [2]

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugee</span> Displaced person

A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a person who has lost the protection of their country of origin and who cannot or is unwilling to return there due to well-founded fear of persecution. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the contracting state or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) if they formally make a claim for asylum.

Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internally displaced person</span> Person forced to leave their home who remains within their country

An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forced displacement</span> Coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region

Forced displacement is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations".

Development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) occurs when people are forced to leave their homes in a development-driven form of forced migration. Historically, it has been associated with the construction of dams for hydroelectric power and irrigation, but it can also result from various development projects such as mining, agriculture, the creation of military installations, airports, industrial plants, weapon testing grounds, railways, road developments, urbanization, conservation projects, and forestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraqi civil war (2006–2008)</span> Middle Eastern Conflict 2006-2009

The Iraqi civil war was a civil war fought mainly between the Iraqi government along with American-led coalition forces and various sectarian armed groups, mainly Islamic State of Iraq and the Mahdi Army, from 2006 to 2008. In February 2006, the anti-American insurgency escalated into a sectarian civil war after the bombing of Al-Askari shrine, considered as a holy site in Twelver Shi'ism. US President George W. Bush and Iraqi officials accused Al-Qaeda in Iraq of orchestrating the bombing, although AQI publicly rejected any links to the attacks. The incident set off a wave of reprisals by Shia militants on Sunni civilians, followed by Sunni counterattacks on Shia civilians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees of Iraq</span>

Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout 1980 until 2017, there were a large number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking with the Iraq War and continued until the end of the most recent War in Iraq (2013–2017). Precipitated by a series of conflicts including the Kurdish rebellions during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait (1990) and the Gulf War (1991), the subsequent sanctions against Iraq (1991–2003), culminating in the Iraq War and the subsequent War in Iraq (2013–2017), millions were forced by insecurity to flee their homes in Iraq. Like the majority of refugees worldwide, Iraqi refugees established themselves in urban areas in other countries rather than in refugee camps. In April 2007, there was an estimate of over four million Iraqi refugees around the world, including 1.9 million in Iraq, 2 million in neighboring Middle East countries, and around 200,000 in countries outside the Middle East. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has led the humanitarian efforts for Iraqi refugees. The Iraqi displacement of several million was the largest in the Middle East at the time, and was even larger than the number of Palestinians who were displaced in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinians in Iraq</span> Palestinians residing in Iraq

Palestinians in Iraq are people of Palestinians, most of whom have been residing in Iraq after they were displaced in 1948. Before 2003, there were approximately 34,000 Palestinians thought to be living in Iraq, mainly concentrated in Baghdad. However, since the 2003 Iraq War, the figure lies between 10,000–13,000, although a precise figure has been hard to determine. The situation of Palestinians in Iraq deteriorated after the fall of Saddam Hussein and particularly following the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in 2006. Since then, with the rise in insecurity throughout Iraq, they have been the target of expulsion, persecution and violence by Shia militants, and the new Iraqi Government with militant groups targeting them for preferential treatment they received under the Ba'ath Party rule. Currently, several hundred Palestinians from Iraq are living in border camps, after being refused entry to neighbouring Jordan and Syria. Others have been resettled to third countries.

Since the late 1970s until the present, Iraq has witnessed numerous waves of refugees and emigrants due to significant events in its modern history. These events have led to the displacement of millions of Iraqis. These include over three decades of repression, periodic violent attacks, and massacres targeting the Kurdish population in the north and the Shi'a in the south, all carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime. Other factors include the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Gulf War of 1991, the prolonged economic sanctions until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iraqis in Syria are Syrian citizens of Iraqi origin and Iraqi residents in Syria.

The Iraq War resulted in multiple humanitarian crises.

The 2009 refugee crisis in Pakistan was the massive displacement of civilians in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan that was caused by Operation Black Thunderstorm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdish villages depopulated by Turkey</span> Depopulation of the Kurdish villages in Turkey

The number of Kurdish villages depopulated by Turkey is estimated at around 3,000. Since 1984, the Turkish military has embarked on a campaign to eradicate the Kurdistan Workers Party, by the year 2000 some 30,000 people have died, and two million Kurdish refugees have been driven out of their homes into cities.

Azerbaijan has a large number of internally displaced people and refugees, mostly as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The First Nagorno-Karabakh war led to the displacement of approximately 750,000 Azerbaijanis. This figure includes around 500,000 people from Nagorno-Karabakh and the previously occupied surrounding regions, in addition to 186,000 from Armenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kampala Convention</span>

The Kampala Convention is a treaty of the African Union (AU) that addresses internal displacement caused by armed conflict, natural disasters and large-scale development projects in Africa.

Sudanese refugees are persons originating from the country of Sudan, but seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and civil wars, as well as environmental changes, namely desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine but also the forced migration of large numbers of the Sudanese population, both inside and outside the country's borders. Given the expansive geographic territory of Sudan, and the regional and ethnic tensions and conflicts, much of the forced migration in Sudan has been internal. Yet, these populations are not immune to similar issues that typically accompany refugeedom, including economic hardship and providing themselves and their families with sustenance and basic needs. With the creation of a South Sudanese state, questions surrounding southern Sudanese IDPs may become questions of South Sudanese refugees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Present absentee</span> Legally dispossessed Palestinian internal refugees

Present absentees are Arab internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine during the 1947–1949 Palestine war but remained within the area that became the state of Israel.

The Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq were part of a large-scale effort in demographic engineering undertaken by the erstwhile Iraqi government, which had aimed to shift the country's population in a way that would render non-Arabs subjugated under Arab hegemony. While comprising the ethnic majority on a national scale, the Arab population is a regional minority in northern Iraq; this region of the country is where Iraqi ethnic minorities are concentrated. In order to Arabize the north, the government adopted a policy in line with settler colonialism, allotting land in the north to Arab settlers. The campaigns also involved ethnic cleansing, primarily targeting Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Armenians, among others. In 1978 and 1979, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.

A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants.

References

  1. ↑ "DTM-IOM-Iraq Mission". iraqdtm.iom.int. Archived from the original on 2017-04-02. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Total internally displaced population is estimated to be 2.76 million (as of November 2009)". Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. March 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Resolving Iraqi Displacement: Humanitarian and Development Perspectives". Brookings Institution - University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement. November 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 Margesson, Rhoda; Andorra Bruno; Jeremy M. Sharp (13 February 2009). "Iraqi IDPs and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?". Congressional Research Service.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Iraq: Funding Shortfall hits plans for IDPs, returnees". Integrated Regional Information Networks. 28 February 2011.
  6. ↑ Sassoon, Joseph (2009). The Iraqi Refugees, The New Crisis in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 29. ISBN   978-1-84885-697-4.
  7. ↑ "Review of Displacement and Return in Iraq, February 2009". International Organization for Migration. 2009.
  8. ↑ Mysliwiec, Anna (12 July 2010). "IDPs in Iraq still waiting for solutions". Education for Peace in Iraq Center.
  9. ↑ Isser, Deborah; Peter Van der Auweraert (April 2009). "Land, Property, and the Challenge of Return for Iraq's Displaced" (PDF). United States Institute of Peace.
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