Fire engulfs eight tents at a displacement camp in Duhok

Shafaq News/ A fire ripped through the Sharya camp for displaced people south of Duhok on Monday, destroying eight tents and causing significant material damage.

The Duhok Migration and Displacement Directorate reported that the fire resulted in no casualties but caused extensive damage to the belongings of the displaced residents.

The cause of the fire remains unknown until the moment, the Directorate said.

In the past year, fires and explosions have hit camps for displaced people in northern Iraq on several occasions, leading to deaths and injuries.

Last month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed concerns about the Iraqi government's plans to close all camps hosting families uprooted from their homes by conflict and an unstable security situation.

The government decision stipulates that all aid and services for displaced people will be halted and the camps closed by July 30.

To encourage the displaced to return home, the government is offering each family a one-off payment of four million Iraqi dinars (about $2,750), a plasma TV, oven and refrigerator, in addition to aid parcels.

Despite the financial incentives, many IDPs remain reluctant to return to an area where they do not feel safe. The lack of reconstruction of their destroyed homes, continuing violence, tribal stigma and lack of services are among the many reasons why displaced people do not want to go back.

The decision covers 23 displacement camps hosting 30,000 families – about 150,000 people in total – from different parts of the country.

They are part of the more than two million people who fled their homes after ISIS emerged 10 years ago and seized control of large areas of land in northern and western Iraq. Though the extremist group has been destroyed territorially and attacks have decreased, reconstruction of the destroyed towns has been slow.