UN agency: Over 3.3 million Iraqis returned to their home regions till Jan.
IOM reports that thousands of Iraqi internally displaced persons continue to return home
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Over 3.3 million Iraqis have returned to their home regions, while nearly 2.5 million people continued to live in displacement till January 31, 2018, a Geneva-based UN migration agency reported on Wednesday.
In a report, a copy of which was obtained by Alfurat News, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, “In January 2018, for the first time in more than three years, there were more returnees than internally displaced people.”
The organization pointed out that about 125,000 returnees returned to their areas of origin in the four governorates of Nineveh, Salahuddin, Kirkuk and Anbar last month.
“In the last three years, Anbar governorate has received the largest number of returnees in the country, due to improved security, rehabilitation of services and rebuilding of infrastructures,” the report read, adding that the return movement is sill ongoing.
The IOM highlighted that the three governorates reporting the biggest decreases in the number of internally displaced people were Nineveh, (- 6 percent), Baghdad (- 12 percent), and Anbar (- 17 percent). Together, they account for almost two-thirds of the nationwide decrease of displaced people.
“Due to lack of security, services and livelihood opportunities in west Mosul, approximately 600 families returned in January to Haj Ali camp,” the organization noted.
Since the start of the crisis in early 2014, with Islamic State later holding large parts of central Iraq and the subsequent conflict to retake these areas, nearly six million Iraqis have been displaced.
During the Kuwait International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq, held earlier this month, the UN launched a two-year Recovery and Resilience Programme, in which IOM Iraq takes part, to assist the Iraqi government in addressing the multiple needs for rebuilding and reconstruction in the country.