Iraq estimates cost of ending displacement at $23 billion

Mustafa Shilani 2021/08/07 12:02

Displaced Iraqis have been forced out of camps making them even more vulnerable. (Photo: AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Ending displacement in Iraq would cost some 34 trillion Iraqi dinars ($23 billion), a committee tasked with implementing the national plan said this week.

In a committee meeting on Thursday, Minister of Planning Khaled Batal al-Najm said closing down camps for internally displaced people and allowing them to return home is a priority for the Iraqi government.

Najm said the government needs to spend $23 billion to fully implement the plan, adding “we are now working on convening an international conference for donor countries, to obtain international support for the Iraqi government's efforts to end this file, in light of the difficulty of providing the required funds.”

The plan includes shutting down the camps, reconstructing areas damaged in the war against ISIS, and providing utilities and other services.

The minister said a special fund was established to finance projects for voluntary returns. So far 25 billion dinars have been allocated to the fund, he said.

Evan Faeq, the minister of migration and displacement, said the ministry is coordinating with the planning ministry and the United Nations to execute the plan.

Baghdad announced last October that it would begin to close displacement camps across the country in three phases, the last of which is in the Kurdistan Region.

The government says returns are strictly voluntary, but international humanitarian organizations have warned that forcing the camps shut without providing for people returning home could lead to secondary displacement and poverty.

Roughly a million people are still displaced, most of them in camps or in the cities of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, according to the latest statistics.