On August 20, the Higher Committee for Relief and Support of Displaced Persons, affiliated with the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, issued a decision to register displaced persons from Shengal District who are living outside the area (particularly those residing in camps in the Kurdistan Region) as citizens of the area to which they were displaced, and to remove their “refugee” status. This decision effectively closes the file on their return to the villages and communities of Shengal, and suspends the support and incentive programs for return that the ministry had approved a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n
This decision coincided with the eleventh anniversary of the large-scale ISIS attack on the predominantly Kurdish Yazidi district of Shengal on August 3, 2014. The attack resulted in the killing, injury, and enslavement of thousands of Yazidi Kurds, as well as the displacement of most of the population both internally within Iraq and as refugees abroad.<\/p>\n
On January 24, 2024, the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced July 30, 2024, as the “final deadline” for the return of displaced Yazidis from camps in the Kurdistan Region to their original areas in Shengal District. To encourage return, the ministry announced a “package of aid and incentives,” which included a one-time payment of 4 million Iraqi dinars (approximately $3,000) to each family that decided to return, along with government employment opportunities, social security benefits, and interest-free loans for small businesses (see: “Shengal: Obstacles to Normalization and the Return of the Displaced,” Kurdish Center for Studies, May 31, 2024).<\/p>\n
However, the return of the displaced has not proceeded as promoted. More than a year after the “deadline,” the situation remains largely unchanged, with over 24,000 Yazidi families still living in 24 displacement camps (15 of which are in Duhok), and approximately 38,000 families living outside the camps across various cities and villages in the Kurdistan Region, far from their original homes in Shengal. The total number of displaced Yazidis inside and outside the camps in the Kurdistan Region is estimated at around 183,000, with unofficial sources citing that more than 300,000 people from Shengal live outside the district, distributed across areas under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government.<\/p>\n
In addition to the ongoing Turkish shelling of Shengal, which is the primary reason for the Yazidis’ reluctance to return, other reasons include a lack of trust in the Iraqi government’s promises to deliver financial aid, implement reconstruction programs, provide sources of income, and ensure adequate educational, health, and social services. There are also fears of clashes breaking out between armed groups controlling the district.<\/p>\n
The Autonomous Administration of Shengal issued a statement condemning the recent decision by the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement to prevent the return of displaced Yazidis. The statement said, “At a time when everyone is preoccupied with the Iraqi parliamentary elections (scheduled for November 2025), such a decision does not serve the interests of the Yazidi community. Instead, it is a new political and social attack on its existence. We, as the Autonomous Administration of Shengal, affirm that this decision is political and part of a plan by ISIS to displace the people of Shengal and alter its demographics.” The statement further argued that the decision is “a plan to divide Shengal. Despite its military setbacks, ISIS has not been able to displace the residents. However, the Ministry of Migration is seeking to remove Shengal from Yazidi control and register the displaced as permanent residents of the Kurdistan Region. This decision would turn camps into permanent settlements and aims to fragment the Yazidi community.”<\/p>\n
In the same context, the Board of Commissioners of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission decided to disqualify candidate Khadeeda Joki Hussein Al-Haskani from the Yazidi quota in Nineveh Governorate for the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections. The decision was based on the recommendation of the Candidate Eligibility Committee, formed by Ministerial Order (79) on July 16, 2025, and ratified on August 18, 2025. The committee excluded the candidate and director of Sinuni district (Khadida Joki Hussein Ado Lahskani) from the individual Yazidi seat in Nineveh for violating Article 7 (Third) of the Law on Elections for the Council of Representatives and Provincial Councils No. 12 of 2018, as amended. The decision was unanimous, and the electoral administration was instructed to take the necessary measures, with the decision to be published on the official website of the commission.<\/p>\n
Sources close to the Autonomous Administration of Shengal indicated that the decision was political and lacked a legal basis. They also noted that the exclusion was made under pressure from factions hostile to the autonomous administration and to Yazidi rights and representation. They recalled the history of the candidate, Hasakani, who resisted ISIS’s attack in 2014 and led Sinuni district, overseeing the welfare of the residents during the absence of Iraqi state institutions\u2014military and civilian\u2014during ISIS’s expansion and seizure of military units, government buildings, and institutions in Shengal and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Displaced persons’ camps in the Kurdistan Region have witnessed demonstrations organized by displaced people from Shengal, denouncing the decision by the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement to integrate them into the region after revoking their “refugee” status\u2014effectively preventing them from returning to their villages and towns. Hundreds protested in Zakho camp to condemn the Ministry\u2019s decision and demand a program for their return and reintegration into Shengal, along with financial assistance similar to what the Ministry provides to families repatriated by Iraqi authorities from Al-Hawl camp in North and East Syria, where each family received compensation estimated at 10 million Iraqi dinars.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators viewed the decision to revoke their \u201crefugee\u201d status and register them as residents outside their region as a political maneuver aimed at preventing the Yazidis from returning to Shengal and instead settling other groups in their areas as part of a deliberate policy of demographic change. The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement denied this accusation in a statement published on its website.<\/p>\n
Shengal district continues to suffer from the aftermath of the ISIS attack\/genocide it endured in August 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis remain displaced, many of whom have permanently left Iraq for Western countries. According to the United Nations, as of April 2025, approximately 70 percent of Yazidis still live outside Shengal due to ongoing insecurity, political instability, and delayed reconstruction. Around 70 percent of civilian homes and infrastructure remain destroyed.<\/p>\n
The central government continues to delay reconstruction in the district and has failed to implement development projects. Meanwhile, 2,800 people remain missing, while 3,576 individuals kidnapped by ISIS have been rescued. Authorities are still working to identify the mass graves left behind by ISIS in Shengal. So far, 96 mass graves have been documented, with 74 of them exhumed.<\/p>\n
Although the Iraqi Parliament in 2020 recognized the atrocities committed against the Yazidis by ISIS as genocide and passed a law to provide justice and compensation\u2014known as the \u201cYazidi Genocide Law\u201d\u2014the law has not been implemented. It remains ink on paper amid ongoing political disputes. The law promised financial and social support to victims, including retirement pensions, residential land plots, employment priority for female survivors, and other benefits related to education, employment, and the reconstruction of Shengal, including the development of infrastructure and public services.<\/p>\n
Baghdad has refused to recognize the autonomous administration in Shengal or the Shengal Defense Units, and has yielded to Turkish pressure regarding the region\u2019s security arrangements\u2014using this as a pretext to obstruct reconstruction and prevent the return of displaced Yazidis.<\/p>\n
The recent decision to revoke the refugee status of displaced Yazidis from Shengal residing in \u201ctemporary\u201d camps is the latest step by the central government to close the file and abandon all prior commitments to deliver justice, return them to their homes, rebuild their areas, and establish economic, educational, and healthcare infrastructure. This has made the return of Yazidis to Shengal extremely difficult and has left them with two grim options: remain indefinitely in camps or leave Iraq permanently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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