Displaced Yazidis in Duhok welcome the new year wishing to return home

Shafaq News/ This new year, the Yazidis in Duhok of Iraqi Kurdistan share one wish, to return to the Sinjar district after eight years in displacement camps.

At least 450,000 Yazidis were displaced, not counting those killed or kidnapped by ISIS. More than 300,000 of them live in urban areas or some 15 displacement camps in the Iraqi Duhok.

Hesso Hamed told Shafaq News agency, "the Yazidis struggle to survive in displacement camps in Iraq. We hope to return to Sinjar after it is safe and stable."

"This is not our home. Our children have become young, and our youth have become older, and we are still living in the camps." Bassam Eido said to our agency.

A non-governmental organization (NGO) official told Al-Monitor that the main challenge Yazidi survivors face is living in protracted displacement. "Many Yazidis live in camps, unable to find work. There isn't enough access to schools, and they face extreme poverty."

According to Dayan Jaffar, the director of the Department of Migration and Displacement and Crisis Response in Duhok, the displaced faced many in 2022; essentially, the organizations reduced their humanitarian aid by 70%.

As we approach the end of another year, the fate of the Yazidis survivors is unclear. Still, the displaced Yazidi will join a long list of abandoned displaced populations in camps worldwide if nothing is done.