BAGHDAD – The majority of Iraqis currently displaced in Anbar by the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) feel safer in camps than back home aid agencies warned today, amid moves by Iraqi authorities to return thousands of families to their places of origin, at times with fatal consequences.

“It’s tragic to think that people feel safer in camps than in their homes when this conflict has supposedly ended,” said Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Iraq, Petr Kostohryz. “People are afraid of retribution, unexploded bombs, or simply have nowhere to return to. There can be no hope for peace in Iraq if the authorities cannot guarantee that people can go back home safely.”

Since the Government of Iraq announced the defeat of IS, over two million Iraqis remain in displacement. Around 9,000 people were forced from displacement camps back to their homes in Anbar between November and December 2017 and other displaced people in Baghdad governorate have been ordered to return to their homes.

“The Long Road Home”, a report compiled by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and NRC, includes interviews with people living in displacement camps in Anbar and found that:

- 84 per cent felt safer in their current camps than back home,

- Only 1 per cent reported knowing that they had homes to return to,

- More than 50 per cent report that their houses were damaged or totally destroyed; and

- 16% reported that their attempts to return had been blocked.