Shafaq News- Duhok

Authorities in Iraq’s Duhok province are preparing the return of 410 displaced families to Sinjar, with registration opening in September, an official told Shafaq News on Sunday.

Duhok Migration, Displacement, and Crisis Response Director Pir Dayan Jaafar said registration will run through June 2027 in coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with applications open across all camps in Duhok province and the Zakho autonomous administration to families from all parts of Sinjar.

IOM will provide each returning family with 1.5 million Iraqi dinars and cover the cost of transporting household belongings. The assistance is separate from Iraqi government grants and will not affect eligibility for compensation or other state entitlements.

Return support has declined compared with previous years, when IOM programs also included repairing and rebuilding homes. Current assistance is focused mainly on transport and the cash grant, Jaafar said.

The August 2014 ISIS offensive on Sinjar resulted in mass executions, abductions, and the enslavement of thousands of Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority in Iraq. Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the district in late 2015, and Iraqi forces declared the full liberation of Nineveh province and the defeat of ISIS two years later. Nearly 2,900 Yazidis are still listed as missing.

Read more: The long shadow of Sinjar: Twelve years after the ISIS genocide

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government signed the Sinjar Agreement in 2020 to address administration, security, and reconstruction, but implementation remains incomplete. On August 3, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani renewed calls for its implementation.