(24 Jun 2024)
IRAQ YAZIDI RETURNEES
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:54
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dohuk, Iraq – 24 June 2024
1. Wide of trucks loaded with belongings of displaced people waiting to leave Dohuk
2. Close of belongings on truck
3. Various of displaced Yazidis waiting for paperwork in front of IOM office
4. IOM officer talking to displaced Yazidi man
5. Sign of IOM’s Facilitated Voluntary Movement (FVM) program in Dohuk
6. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Hezo Shemo, displaced from Sinjar:
"With God’s will, we are going back to our place and hope everything will go well and be easy for both charity and the displaced people. We stayed for two years in Irbil and it has been eight years that we have lived in Khanke (camp). We suffered and changed places a lot, and now we are going back to our home with God’s permission."
7. IOM officers and displaced people
8. Various of cash money offered for the returnees
9. Officer registering names of people
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Warvin Sabah, head of data and information at migration and displacement department in Dohuk:
"We offer a number of benefits. First, we provide an amount of money for car rental, so the displaced person will be able to move their belongings from their place of stay (camp) to Sinjar. We also offer a return allowance, which is an estimated amount of $1,600."
11. Various of packed trucks waiting on main road
12. Yazidi returnees waiting for paperwork
13. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Hasso Murad, displaced from Sinjar:
"Everyone wants to be in their home, and so we also want to return to our homes, to rebuild them, and work for the future. Our land and properties are there, and despite the fact that the people here did their best for us, we can’t stay here until the end of our lives."
14. Loaded trucks ready to leave to Sinjar
15. Various of Yazidi family checking their belongings in truck
16. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Haifa Barakat, displaced from Sinjar:
"We are going back now, and we don’t have a house to live in. It was destroyed. So we are not going to our village right now, but we are going to rent a house in Sinjar (city). I have a job; I work at Sinjar Hospital."
17. UN vehicles leading the convoy to Sinjar
18. Displaced people getting ready for departure
19. Trucks of returnees heading to Sinjar
STORYLINE:
More than 80 displaced Yazidi families returned to their hometown region of Sinjar in northern Iraq on Monday, after nearly a decade of displacement in various areas of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
Their return was organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through the Facilitated Voluntary Movement (FVM) program, in coordination with the Iraqi government.
IOM officials said they provide an amount of money for each family to rent a truck and load their belongings from the camps, as well as a return allowance of $1,600.
In addition, the Iraqi government also provides about $1,000 to each family once they resettle in their home areas in Sinjar.
"Everyone wants to be in their home, and so we also want to return to our homes, to rebuild them, and work for the future," said Hasso Murad, a displaced Yazidi who was returning to Sinjar on Monday.
The Iraqi government has set a plan to close down all displacement camps by the end of July.
It is offering cash and household appliances to displaced people, especially the Yazidis, to encourage them to return to their areas in Sinjar.
There are 14 camps for displaced people, mostly Yazidis, scattered around Dohuk governorate.
AP video shot by Rashid Yahya
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