Iraq assists in return of 155 Iraqi refugees from Turkey

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement (MoMD) on Wednesday announced the arrival of 155 refugees from Turkey back to their homes in Iraq.

The migrants were transported through the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing in the Zakho district of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

Sitar Nawroz, the Deputy Director of displacements affairs at MoMD, reassured in a statement that the returnees were voluntary and not forced.

“The 155 migrants were living in the governorates of Ankara, Samsun, and Çorum in Turkey,” Nawroz added. “The ministry continues with its program of free facilitation of the voluntary return of refugees and displacements from foreign countries, especially Turkey.”

“The process was concluded in cooperation with MoMD’s office in Turkey and Iraq’s ministry of transportation that provided buses at the border crossing and transported them back to their home cities and towns.”

The MoMD’s voluntary return program has been ongoing for over a year, encouraging Iraqi citizens to return to their liberated areas the so-called Islamic State had previously occupied.

Following the emergence of the terror group and its expansion in 2014, six million Iraqis were internally displaced, with thousands fleeing abroad to neighboring and western countries.

Since the beginning of 2019, the Federal Government of Iraq has helped internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Iraqi refugees settle into their liberated homes. Many, however, continue to resist a return to their towns due to security concerns and a lack of essential services.

Over the past year, the Islamic State has carried out insurgency attacks, kidnappings, and ambushes in the country despite Iraq declaring victory against the terror group in December 2017.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany