Shafaq News/ Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim Al-Araji met with Kurdish Minister of Interior Rebar Ahmed Khalid in Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil on Saturday.

The high-level meeting was attended by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, security officials from the Kurdistan Region, and the presidents of the Courts of Appeal in Erbil, Nineveh, and Kirkuk.

According to a statement from Al-Araji’s office, the talks focused on conditions in the Hassan Sham and Debaga camps and coordination mechanisms for resolving their issues, with a recommendation to form a joint committee to oversee the matter and present findings to the Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad.

In 2024, the Iraqi government had set July 30 as a deadline to close displacement camps, offering a financial incentive of 4 million dinars (around $3,000) per family to encourage returns.

Despite Baghdad’s directive, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has resisted forced closures, citing residents' right to choose whether to stay or return. Duhok, in particular, remains a focal point of this policy, hosting 15 camps that shelter over 3,300 displaced individuals, primarily from Sinjar, who fled during the ISIS invasion in 2014.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has warned that closing displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) could jeopardize the rights of many camp residents, particularly those from the northern Sinjar district.