IDP camp in south closes to new arrivals

An internally displaced persons (IDP) camp just outside the southern Iraqi city of Najaf has closed to new arrivals, forcing hundreds of Iraqis fleeing violence in Baghdad and neighbouring governorates to look elsewhere for refuge.

[Read this story in Arabic]

Families trying to access Najaf’s al-Manathera camp told IRIN they were desperately searching for a place to stay as their children were getting sick in the hot weather and they had no food or shelter.

“We have been trying to get access to a camp in Najaf for the past five days… but so far no one has offered us help and my two smallest children are getting sick,” said Um Abir, mother of four, recently displaced due to sectarian violence in Baghdad.

“It is hard for us to see people getting full assistance inside the camps while we are outside hungry, tired and dirty,” Um Abir said, adding: “Someone should look after us before we get shot, or die in this terrible hot weather, because we don’t have anywhere to shelter and have to cover our heads with newspaper.”

However, Muthana Ali Zeid, media officer in the Najaf Governorate Council, said they could not afford to provide any more assistance to new arrivals.

“Many camps are completely full and, if we allow families to come in, existing IDPs will lose the assistance they are getting,” Zeid said.

We have been trying to get access to a camp in Najaf for the past five days… but so far no one has offered us help and my two smallest children are getting sick.

Al-Manathera camp

The al-Manathera camp is in an old wood factory near the Abu Skhear Silo, Al-Manathera District, about 18km south of Najaf city. The camp is one kilometre down a dirt track off the main road linking Al-Manathera with Najaf city.

The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) set up the camp in January 2007 in cooperation with the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to house families who had been squatting in settlements that had been demolished, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in its June/July update report on IDPs in camps in Iraq.

The camp is currently managed by the Najaf branch of the MoDM and hosts 230 families - about 1,150 people.

Zeid said a new security fence around the camp made it almost impossible for new arrivals to get in. “We understand that people need to save their lives but we also need to realise that too many families in a camp is even worse,” he said.
 

We cannot let more children die in the camp. If more people come in, the possibility of diseases spreading will be higher.

“We cannot let more children die in the camp. If more people come in, the possibility of diseases spreading will be higher,” Zeid said.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), up to mid-July three infants aged 1-3 had died owing to the extreme heat, and the risk of dehydration was high.

Anita Raman, associate reporting officer for the UNHCR Iraq Operation, said the camp suffered from lack of cooling systems and medical care and IDPs were in a very difficult economic situation as there were few jobs.

Shortage of land

The MoDM said ministry officials were looking into establishing new camps near al-Manathera but noted that most nearby land was owned by individuals unwilling to let others use it.

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Concern for newly arriving IDPs in south

“We are trying to get nearby landowners to agree to allow the construction of new camps but unfortunately some are strongly opposed to the idea, saying it might affect agriculture and their living conditions,” Dina Youssef, a senior MoMD official, said.

Based on monitoring by MoDM, the UNHCR and the IOM, there are some 2.2 million IDPs in Iraq, 1,011,870 of whom were displaced in the past 16 months. Najaf governorate alone is home to 53,970 IDPs, with families continuing to move within the governorate to safer non-urban areas.

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