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Iraqi Kurdistan government to build camp
for IDPs 30.8.2006
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Erbil,
Kurdistan-Iraq, 29 August (IRIN) - Kurdish officials
in Iraq's northern Kurdistan Region have unveiled
plans to build a camp for some 6,000 families who
have abandoned their homes in southern and central
Iraq to resettle in the north since the fall of
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
"We will build a camp in Sulaimaniyah for those
people who are moving here from the south and they
will be considered as IDPs [internally displaced
people]," Tavga Omar, general director of the
Kurdistan regional government's Human Rights
Ministry, told IRIN.
"The purpose of setting up the camp is to easily
provide services for them in one place and also
protect their rights as IDPs," she said.
The camp in Sulaimaniyah will be the first of its
kind for displaced Iraqis in the north.
Tagva said she was concerned over the increasing
number of people heading to the Kurdistan region,
adding that the government "cannot cope with this
increasing rate".
"There has been a considerable increase in the
number of people coming to Kurdistan over the past
year, especially since the bombing of the Shi'ite
holy shrines of Samara in February," said Colonel
Herish Ajghayi, head of the Internal Residency
Office (IRO) of the Kurdish Ministry of Interior.
S. Ahmed, 48, who did not want to give his first
name for security reasons, is displaced but an
exception in that he can afford his own
accommodation. He is one of several Arab university
professors who have moved to the north. He left his
home in the Karada neighbourhood of Baghdad four
months ago.
"I decided to come here because of the deteriorating
security situation over there," Ahmed said, adding
that several of his fellow professors had been
either abducted or assassinated. He now teaches in a
university in the northern Erbil province and has
rented a house in the city for the equivalent of US
$600 a month, while his total monthly income is
$1,000.
"Things are expensive here really and if you don't
have a good income you cannot afford to get on
easily," Ahmed added. Most displaced persons,
however, do not have the means to pay such rent and
therefore require free accommodation.
According to figures released by the IRO in Erbil,
7,498 IDPs have moved to Erbil from other areas of
Iraq from January 2005 to August 2006. Of these
people, 2,670 are Arabs [Shi'ite and Sunni], 1,292
identify themselves as Christians and the rest are
Kurds who used to live outside Kurdish areas.
The majority of the displaced families have not yet
been able to transfer their ration cards from their
original cities to Erbil, said the IRO. The ration
card system is a legacy of the UN-imposed
international sanctions era in Iraq [from 1990 to
2003 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait]. According
to that system, Iraqis receive a regular monthly
ration of certain food items.
The Erbil Office of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS),
however, has assisted some of these families by
giving them such items as food and furniture. Imad
Maruf, head of the Disasters and Relief Department
of the IRCS in Erbil, said that the organisation has
so far helped more than 1,000 displaced people who
are registered with them.
Many of the IDPs moving to Erbil doubt that the
situation in the areas they left will get any better
soon.
"Even if the situation there improves, I still
prefer to stay here," said Ahmed. "My life is better
here."
irinnews org
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