Ten years after the Islamic State extremists invaded northern Iraq, Moaz Fadhil and his eight children finally returned to their village after years in a displacement camp.
Their home, Hassan Shami, is far from the tent city they lived in, and still bears the scars of fighting IS.
The jihadists seized a third of Iraq, ruling their “caliphate” with an iron fist, before an international coalition seized power from them in 2017.
Seven years on, many homes in the village are still in ruins and without essential services, but Fadhil said he felt “indescribable joy” when he returned back in August.
Iraq — ravaged by decades of war and turmoil even before the rise of IS — is home to more than a million internally displaced people.
Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of the displacement camps, as the country has achieved a degree of relative stability in recent years.
Most of the Iraqi federal camps have now been closed, but about 20 remain in the northern Kurdistan region, which according to the United Nations is home to more than 115,000 people.
But for many, returning home can actually be a daunting task.
After getting the green light from the Kurdish security forces to move to the camp, Fadhil moved his family into a friend’s damaged house because his own was in complete ruins.
– ‘Good memories’ –
“The water comes in trucks carrying pumpkins and there is no electricity,” said the 53-year-old man.
Although the debris has been removed from the building he now lives in, the cinder block walls and rough concrete floors remain exposed.
Across Hassan Shami, half-demolished houses sit next to concrete structures that are still being built by those residents who know how to rebuild.
Some have installed solar panels to power their new lives.
The new mosque stands, stark white, along the asphalt road.
“I was born here, my father and mother preceded me,” said Fadhil, who is an unemployed farmer.
“I have good memories with my children, my parents.”
The family survives mostly on the meager income earned by his eldest son, who works all day at construction sites.
“Every four or five days you work a day” at about $8, Fadhil said.
In an effort to close the camps and facilitate return, Iraqi authorities are offering families around $3,000 to return to their homes.
To do that, displaced people must obtain a security clearance — to ensure they are not wanted for jihadist crimes — and have their identity documents or land rights, respectively.
But of the 11,000 deportees still living in six camps near Hassan Shami, 600 are former prisoners, according to the UN.
They were released after serving five years on charges related to IS membership.
– It’s not that easy –
For them, going home can mean other problems.
There is a risk of discrimination by neighbors or tribes because of their ties to IS atrocities, possible detention at a federal military checkpoint or a second trial.
Among them is 32-year-old Rashid, who asked that we use a pseudonym because of his previous arrest in Kurdistan for being part of a jihadist group.
He said he hoped that the camp near Hassan Shami would not be closed.
“I have a release certificate (from prison), everything is in order… But I can’t go back there”, he said of the Iraqi government.
“If I go back 20 years” in prison, he added, worried that he will be tried again in an Iraqi court.
Ali Abbas, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Migration, said that those who committed crimes may face trial after leaving the camps.
“No one can stop justice from doing their job”, he said, saying that their families will not face any problem.
The government is working to ensure that returning families receive basic services, Abbas added.
In recent months, Baghdad has repeatedly tried to set a deadline for Kurdistan to close the camps, even suing the autonomous region’s leaders before they chose cooperation over coercion.
Imrul Islam of the Norwegian Refugee Council said that displacement camps by definition should be temporary, but warned against their immediate closure.
When people come back, “you need schools. You need hospitals. You need roads. And you need labor markets that provide livelihood opportunities,” he said.
Apart from this, he said, many families who try to resettle in their hometowns may end up going back to the camps.
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