Lift Unlawful Restrictions Blocking Thousands

​The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is preventing about 4,200 Sunni Arabs from returning home to 12 villages east of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said today. More than three years after the Hamdaniya district was retaken from the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), in one area KRG authorities have only allowed Kurdish residents and Arabs with KRG ties to return, in violation of international humanitarian law.

The Arab families seeking to return home had fled primarily to ISIS-controlled Mosul during fighting in 2014. Approximately 3,400 Sunni Arabs have been residing in camps for the displaced with dwindling services, according to aid workers. Affected families said they have been blocked from their homes and farmland and unable to earn a living. A KRG official wrote in an email to Human Rights Watch that residents were free to return to their homes, but provided Human Rights Watch with a list of Nineveh villages that were difficult to return to, identifying six from Hamdaniya as “blocked” for return.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government is preventing thousands of Arab villagers from returning home without a lawful reason,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that the KRG is permitting Kurdish and well-connected Arab residents back suggests that these villagers are being improperly punished.”

Iraq complained in an official letter to the UN Security Council about the State of Kuwait, accusing it of pursuing a policy of imposing geographical changes in the maritime borders between the two countries.

According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations Ambassador Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Uloom handed over an official letter to the President of the Security Council on August 7, demanding that it be circulated and issued as an official document by the Council. The newspaper also stated that Bahr Al-Uloom met with several representatives of countries to explain his country’s position.

The Iraqi government asked the United Nations to document its official complaint that “the Kuwaiti government’s carrying out of geographical changes in the maritime area after the 162 mark in Khawr Abd Allah by shoring a shallow area (Fasht Al-Aij) and unilaterally establishing a port facility there, without Iraq’s knowledge and approval.”
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The Iraqi government considered that this has no legal basis in the joint plan to regulate maritime navigation in Khawr Abd Allah, pointing out that the demarcation of the borders by one party in areas not agreed upon by both parties, as stipulated by Amiri Decree 317 of 2014 regarding the delimitation of Kuwaiti maritime regions, is a void act under the provisions of the international law.

Some Forced Back to Home Regions Despite Safety Threats

Local authorities have forcibly expelled more than 2,000 Iraqis from camps for displaced people in Nineveh governorate since August 23, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today.

Some were forced to return to their home regions, despite fears for their safety, including from former neighbors who perceive them as being linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). Some have come under attack since being forced home. Authorities in Nineveh have also blocked families who tried to leave the camps to avoid expulsion.

“Displaced people, like all other Iraqis, have the right to move freely in their country and decide where they feel safe to live,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities can’t move people without first consulting them, especially not to places where they and their families face danger.”

Authorities in Salah al-Din have also announced plans to close camps for displaced people or are already forcing people to return to their governorates of origin.