The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is one of
the major Non-Government Organization’s working with Baghdad and the United
Nations to deal with Iraq’s displacement crisis. It recently released a short report
updating the situation.
IOM counted 3,171,606 displaced Iraqis or 528,601 families
from January 2014 to July 2015. This was a rough estimate for a number of
reasons. First, several provinces in the south have only given round numbers
for how many people they are housing. Second, many families were forced to flee
from the Islamic State (IS) leaving behind their documents. If they do not have
their ID’s they cannot register with the government to receive aid and IOM only
counts those that have signed up with the authorities. Last, the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad province have created a number of
barriers to prevent families from entering fearing that some of them may be
insurgents or IS sympathizers. This includes measures such as requiring a local
sponsor before a person or family is allowed in. That has led many people to
illegally enter these areas, and that would be another category of displaced
not measured by IOM.
87% of the displaced came from three provinces, which have
seen some of the heaviest fighting in the country. Those are Anbar, Ninewa, and
Salahaddin. Anbar accounted for 40% of the total internal refugees with
1,281,276 people having left their homes. Next was Ninewa with 1,034, 358
displaced or 33% of the total. Finally Salahaddin had 429,744 displaced or 14%
of the total. Anbar was where the insurgency first took off in Iraq. Then in
June the militants seized Mosul and Tikrit causing thousands of families to run
for their lives.
In the last two weeks of July IOM found continued
displacement in Anbar and Kirkuk. In the former 31,896 people fled. In Kirkuk
17,958 left their homes, which was a bit of a surprise. Violence in that
province has been at a very low level for months now, while Anbar has become
the main battlefield in the country.
Just over three quarters of the internal refugees are now
living in six of Iraq’s 18 provinces. Anbar has 584,364 displaced, 18% of the
total. That was followed by 538,632 in Baghdad, 17%, 426,054 in Dohuk, 13%,
399,600 in Kirkuk, 13%, 285,264 in Irbil, 9%, and 197,844 in Ninewa, 6%. Most
of Anbar has fallen to the Islamic State leading families to try to find safety
in the remaining government controlled areas. After Mosul and Tikrit fell in
June many people headed for the KRG and Kirkuk. Baghdad however has drawn the
largest number of families because it is in the middle of all the provinces
affected by the insurgency, and is considered the safest since it is the seat
of government. That’s why those governorates are bearing the brunt of this
crisis.
Iraq faces a number of challenges with this current wave of
displacement. First, the war with the Islamic State looks to be a long one meaning
many of these people will not be able to return home anytime soon. Next, NGOs
like the IOM and U.N. are overwhelmed by the sheer size of this crisis. They
lacked the funding to adequately deal with internal refugees before IS’s
offensive last summer, and have since been desperate to raise money to deal
with the new wave of people moving throughout the country. That is unlikely to
change either. Finally, the Iraqi government has proven incapable of dealing
with the problem either. It is supposed to provide cash handouts for example to
displace that register, but instead government officials have been stealing much
of that money. Baghdad also has no overall strategy on what to do with all
these people putting the onus on local governments and NGOs to deal with them.
Overall, that means there will be little relief to this on going dilemma.
SOURCES
International Organization for Migration, “IOM: Over 3.1
Million Iraqis Now Displaced,” 8/14/15
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