Iraq, USA discuss plan to encourage displaced to return to their homes
A child in a refugee camp. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraq announced on Sunday it is discussing with the United States of America an emergency plan to encourage the displaced to return to their homes.
The Iraqi Minister of Immigration and Displacement, Evan Jabro, received on Sunday the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Alina Romanowski, in Baghdad to discuss the ministry’s emergency plan to encourage displaced families in refugee camps to return voluntarily to their original areas of residence, and the mechanism for supporting them financially and morally, according to Alsumaria news.
The two sides also discussed joint cooperation between the two countries in various fields, especially the conditions of the displaced and returnees.
The war in Iraq caused more than five million people to be displaced. The local authorities, in cooperation with international organizations, set up 174 refugee camps to accommodate them. These camps were closed successively during the past few years with the return of residents to their homes.
ISIS terrorist group took control of large areas of Iraq in 2014, and after its defeat at the end of 2017, the authorities set up camps to house families who lived in cities and areas that were under the control of ISIS.
Iraq has been announcing for years its intention to close the camps, but the government has greatly accelerated the steps during the recent period.