IRBIL: The United Nations expressed concern over the Iraqi authorities’ swift closure this week of the displacement camp that had housed 300 families allegedly attached to the militant Daesh group.
The United Nations office in Baghdad said the closure on the last day of the camp known as Jadah 5 in the town of Qayyarah in the north country was done “without sufficient notification and preparation.”
Aid employees, who had criticised the closure as chaotic and hasty, said authorities had notified camp residents they had to leave by Wednesday — a day before the starting of the Muslim celebration of Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the close of the Muslim fasting holy month of Ramadan.
Ministry of Migration and Displacement had set a closure deadline for May. Jadah 5 was the last remaining camp for the displaced in Iraq, which still has somewhere 1.2 million citizens internally displaced after years of tussling.
Aid groups have shoved back against their closures, fearing that vulnerable families, including several children and women, would struggle to integrate with their hometowns and will be stigmatized for their perceived and real affiliation with militants Daesh. Camp residents had said that they tear violence from militias and tribes if they go back to their homes of origin.
United Nations stance
“The humanitarian community has been concerned by the impact of the closure of the camp,” the United Nations office said and reiterated the UN’s long and principled support for the “informed, voluntary, safe and dignified return of all” internally displaced persons.
