Cairo: Iraq has closed a major refugee camp that had been set up to shelter people displaced after the terrorist Daesh group grabbed large swathes in the country in 2014.
The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Refugees announced that Al Salamiyah camp in the northern Iraqi governorate of Nineveh has been shut down after the last group of its residents voluntarily returned to their hometowns. Some 68 families left the camp on Friday, marking the last group of displaced returnees, Iraqi media reported.
Over 5,000 families had been sheltered in the camp, according to Iraqi Minister of Migration Evan Faeq Yakoub Jabro, “The return of the displaced and the displacement file constitute a priority for the government, given its humanitarian aspects and contribution to consolidation of national peace in Iraq,” she added in a statement.
“Thousands of children lived in camps under harsh circumstances. It is high time that this generation properly grew in a stable and appropriate environment,” the official said.
In December 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh militants and liberating the territory they had earlier seized in the country.
