ICC Note: Even as other internally displaced persons (IDPs) are slowly returning to the Nineveh Plains, one demographic has notably failed to consider returning home: residents from Mosul. Although life is difficult in the camps, life in Mosul is considered both more dangerous and challenging. Many Christians from Mosul point out that the city was always violently hostile towards believers, and the rise of ISIS broke what little community trust was left. The security situation and lack of freedom of movement around the Nineveh Plains further discourages residents from returning. 

05/10/2018 Iraq (Rudaw) –  Many Mosul villagers displaced by the ISIS war four years ago still live in limbo in IDP camps as their villages lie in ruins and their calls for help to go home go unheeded.

“Who can help us return home?” asks Hamdullah Hassan, Chief Engineer in Control Systems for the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and a former resident of Tel al-Yawa village.

Hassan who spoke on behalf of the displaced villagers: “In our village, no one returned until now,”

“We talked to other people to share our concerns, but we haven’t been able to reach a high level of government,” Hassan continued. “We don’t know where to go or who to go to for help.”

Most of the population of the abandoned villages cannot afford to rent houses in Mosul and are forced to live in the three surrounding IDP camps, Khazir, Hassansham U2 and U3 camps.

They receive basic supplies but they have no financial assistance and no freedom of movement.

“I live in Mosul but I visit the camps. I see how they live. It’s a difficult life,” Hassan who now lives in Mosul explained.

He said that once 45 families lived in their village of Tel al-Yawa.

Now, some of the remaining houses are temporarily occupied by Bedouins passing through the areas with their livestock despite the risk of mines and explosives.

Hassan Sham, Nazmia, Big Tel Aswad, Small Tel Aswad, Manguba, Chemakor, Sherkan are some other villages with the same fate as Tel al-Yawa.

“Living under control of KRG government, we don’t know who can help us, Kurdistan or the Iraqi government,” Hassan said. “There should be coordination between both governments to solve this problem.  Until now, they don’t allow us to come back to our villages.”

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For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected].