Iraqis believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State continue to face collective punishment. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) was the latest to note that approximately 400,000 people do not have their government documents which means they cannot receive services, can’t freely move about the country, and suffer on going discrimination.
The NRC estimated that 80,000 households in postwar areas
are missing their government documents. That includes 45,000 children in
displaced camps that do not have birth certificates. Most are under 5 years old
and were born under Islamic State control. Adults are also missing their IDs
and other papers for a number of reasons. Some were confiscated by the
militants, others were lost while fleeing, while still more had their papers
taken by the Iraqi forces and they were never returned. IDs are required to
receive services like health care and an education, and to get through
checkpoints which dot northern and western Iraq. Worse, people who lack their
documents are often suspects of being IS members, and risk being arrested.
Various aid groups are attempting to help Iraqis get their
papers but the Iraqi bureaucracy is obtuse and dysfunctional. Getting things
like a birth certificate are very difficult. There are a lack of government
agencies in former war areas. Corruption is another issue. Asking for bribes
for papers is routine. Women with male relatives on wanted lists are often
denied papers. Lawyers and local officials are also afraid to help people
because if they are on a want list giving assistance to them could lead to
being arrested as well. That leaves these families in a no win situation. Without
papers they can’t move around and can’t get basic needs. They are simply
outcasts, which will last into the next generation with their children as well.
Baghdad is doing nothing about this because it has no reconciliation policy
leaving these people to their own devices.
SOURCES
Norwegian Refugee Council, “Barriers From Birth, Undocumented children
in Iraq sentenced to a life on the margins,” 4/30/19
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