As many as 615 internally displaced persons from Kirkuk’s southwestern Hawija district who were housed in Mosul camps were returned to camps located in Kirkuk according to a government decision.
The displaced families had fled their homes during the fighting to retake Hawija from the Islamic State group at the end of 2017 and sought refuge in Mosul’s Hamam al-Alil camp.
Ammar Sabah, director of Kirkuk’s office of the ministry of migration and displacement, speaking to KirkukNow, said, “The return of these families was at the request of the Council of Ministers which has ordered the return of all IDPs to their original provinces. These IDPs have been resettled in Kirkuk’s Laylan Camp, and were provided with tents and other basic needs.”
An estimated 2,000 families from Hawija are currently in two camps in Laylan. Meanwhile, hundreds of displaced families from Ninewa’s Talafar and Ayadhiya areas are settled in Yahyawa Camp, and are due to be returned to their home areas soon.
A source at Laylan Camp told KirkukNow that “all the 615 new returnees will have to undergo scrutiny over suspected links to the Islamic State group.”
