Iraq News
Refugees

Iraq evacuates more than 14,000 refugees from Syria

By Khalid al-Taie

Iraqi refugees are evacuated from al-Hawl camp in Syria to Iraq. [Photo from the Ministry of Migration and Displacement Facebook page]

Iraqi refugees are evacuated from al-Hawl camp in Syria to Iraq. [Photo from the Ministry of Migration and Displacement Facebook page]

The Iraqi government has evacuated more than 14,000 Iraqi refugees living in Syria's al-Hawl and Rawj camps, the Ninawa provincial council announced Tuesday (November 28th).

Thousands of Iraqis were forced to flee to Syria after the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIS) overtook vast swathes of Iraq in mid-2014.

Most were residents of villages along the border areas in western Ninawa and northern Anbar provinces.

Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement, in co-ordination with security forces and government agencies, began on Wednesday (November 22nd) to transfer all Iraqi refugees who had fled to al-Hawl and Rawj camps in rural al-Hasakeh, to camps in Iraq.

"Up till today [Tuesday], a total of 14,450 Iraqi refugees have returned in three batches," Ninawa provincial council member Khalaf al-Hadidi told Diyaruna.

They were evacuated by buses to three camps south of Mosul: al-Jadaa, Hamam al-Alil and al-Salamiya, he said.

The ministry's relief teams provided them with necessary services and aid upon their arrival at the camps, he said.

"They were provided with food, clothes, blankets and heating equipment," al-Hadidi said.

He urged the authorities in his province and international organisations to provide the refugees with urgent support and take part in relief efforts.

Evacuation efforts continue

About 10,000 Iraqi refugees remain in Syrian camps, he said, expressing hope that they will soon be evacuated to Iraq.

Thousands of Iraqis have returned to their homes in Mosul and other Ninawa cities since the operations to liberate the province began last October.

According to official statistics issued by the ministry of Migration and Displacement, 333,132 internally displaced people had returned to their liberated homes throughout Ninawa by mid-October 2016.

More than one million Iraqis had fled the province after it was overrun by ISIS.

Meanwhile in Anbar, about 5,000 displaced families have returned to their homes over the past two weeks.

Mohammed al-Yasseri, the Ministry of Migration and Displacement's technical advisor, said those families have returned to areas in Upper Euphrates, southern Ramadi and eastern Fallujah.

"They were staying in camps in Anbar's desert and in western Baghdad," he said, noting that they have been transported in government buses to their cities in batches over the past two weeks.

"We will continue to bring displaced people back until all [refugee] camps in Iraq have been closed," he said.

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