ERBIL (Anadolu) – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party is preventing the Izadi community from returning to their homes in northern Iraq’s Sinjar region, according to a senior official.
Hundreds of thousands of Izadis, who had to flee their homes after the Daesh terror group carried out an attack on the Sinjar district of Mosul on Aug. 3, 2014, have been living in the camps in northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) under harsh conditions for eight years.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Dayan Jaafar, the provincial director of Duhok Center for Migration and Migrants and Combating Crisis, said no decision was taken regarding the closure of camps in Duhok.
“Whoever wants to stay in the camps can stay, whoever wants to go is free,” said Jaafar.
Jaafar said Izadis refrain from returning to Sinjar as they carry concerns that their children could face new threats due to the oppression by the PKK.
“Currently, a total of 325,096 Izadis cannot return to Sinjar and are living in camps in Duhok. Izadis stay in 15 different camps and they consist of 65,034 families in total,” Jaafar noted.
Jaafar underlined that refugees living in the camps are facing water shortages and similar problems.
As international aid agencies focused their attention on aid for victims of the war in Ukraine, much of the responsibility to provide support to refugees in Duhok camps fell on the KRG, he said.
Izadis await the implementation of the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, with one of the main objectives being the elimination of PKK militants in the region, said Jaafar.
Jaafar underlined that most of the recent problems in the district would be solved if the 2020 Sinjar Agreement was implemented.
In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and KRG in northern Iraq signed an agreement to preserve security in Sinjar by the Iraqi federal security forces in coordination with the KRG Peshmerga forces.