Openness in Iraqi Shia Regions

http://www.niqash.org/en/articles/society/3364/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26028322
16 Jan 2014:  Iraq's Sunni refugees seek shelter among Shia in Karbala


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-divided-iraq-sunnis-fleeing-anbar-find-restive-refuge-in-shiite-holy-city/2014/01/21/8fd0d668-8276-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html
22 Jan 2014: In Karbala, Mudafa Mohammed Shaban, the manager of the pilgrims’ complex, describes the city’s hosting of displaced Sunnis as a “real message” — proof that there is no sectarianism in Iraq.
But few Iraqis would agree.
The 72 families in the compound, just a fraction of the more than 14,000 families that the United Nations says have been displaced from Anbar, undergo heavy vetting before they are allowed to stay. Names are checked against blacklists kept by state security agencies. New checkpoints search cars crossing the border from Anbar into Karbala province, and the road is closed at night.
...

About 45 miles southwest, in Ain Tamr, a city near the border with Anbar, about 180 displaced families are being put up by local families. As in Karbala, officials in Ain Tamr are eager to emphasize that the hospitality is a sign that most Iraqis stay above the sectarian fray.

But when asked how many of the refugees in the city are Sunni, and not from Anbar’s Shiite minority, local official Raed al-Mashhadani refused to answer, calling it an “embarrassing question.” He later acknowledged that those being hosted are mostly Shiites who complain that their lives are increasingly untenable in Anbar.

One of them is Haifa Khodair Abbas, 58, who said she would not go back to Fallujah, which had only a smattering of Shiite families.

“There is no place for Sunnis here. We just have a few families,” said one Ain Tamr resident. “If you want to find the Sunnis, you have to go that way to Rahaliya,” he says, signaling along the road west, over the border, to Anbar.



http://www.irinnews.org/news/2014/05/13/anbar-idps-baghdad-fear-their-safety
13 May 2014: Registering would give displaced families access to a monthly cash stipend of US$240, but fears of repercussions are widespread, including falsely-applied terror charges that could blacklist their entire family. For the same reason, people are also staying away from schools and health centres.
In one district of Baghdad, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) received reports that out of 900 Anbar IDP families residing in the area, some 200 had said they were afraid to go to the MoMD to register.
When families do register, they often send the women – not the men – to do the paperwork, for fear the men would be picked up by the authorities.


http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/07/29/only-america-can-save-iraq-last-christians.html
19 July 2014:
Remarkably, after their mass deportation, the Iraqi government did nothing to help Mosul’s Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, even while the Iraqi Army failed to protect them, allowing ISIS to handily capture Iraq’s second largest city on June 10. Baghdad, however, did manage to send planes and bus convoys to evacuate the Shiites among the exiled minorities. Iraq’s government facilitated the resettlement of Mosul’s Turkmen and Shabak Shiite communities in Najaf and elsewhere in the south, reported Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana with the Christian Aid Program. (ISIS did not target Turkmen and Shabak Sunnis.)


https://twitter.com/aronlund/status/502434693779058688
21 August 2014: Not all refugees in #Iraq are fleeing IS. Spoke to Ali & Omar in Suleimania yesterday, secular Sunni guys who fled Shia militias in Baghdad.


http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/displacement-snapshot-najaf-28-august-2014
28 August 2014: The number of IDPs in Najaf has been steadily increasing in 2014, reaching a total of 11,154 families as the security situation deteriorated in other Iraqi governorates. Throughout June and July alone, at least 10,623 IDP families arrived to Najaf after violence broke out in the northeastern Ninewa governorate. The vast majority of IDPs are Turkmen Shia’ and are being accommodated in mosques and holy shrines. Overwhelmingly, movement has been toward the district of Najaf which currently hosts 10,522 IDP families, 10,398 of which have displaced since June.



http://iomiraq.net/file/1415/download
Sep 2014:  In the south, just 11 per cent of Sunni Arabs intended to stay, whereas nearly 40 per cent of Shia intended to stay and 32 per cent were undecided. Sunni Arabs appeared more intent on going back: 75 per cent intended to return. This remains true for the large number of primarily Turkmen Shia IDPs who moved to Najaf throughout the summer: the majority intended to integrate locally. Similarly, in the central Governorates 79 per cent of Shia Arabs intended to stay, whereas only 26 per cent of Sunnis had such intentions.


http://masaratiraq.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AT-CROSSROADS.pdf
2015:
It is better to be killed by ISIS than to live in humiliation
Abu Ali, an IDP from one of the Shabak villages near the Ninewa Plain, never imagined that he would one day live in a hotel in the province of Karbala. Karbala is home to the shrine of Imam Hussein, a site considered holy by the Shabak, Iraqi, and international Shiites.
Abu Ali and his family members now live on the third floor of the Jarash Palace Hotel in Karbala city, but he does not view his living conditions favorably. "I feel as if I am not living in a hotel but rather in a prison together with my family. We all stay in one unfurnished room, completely without dignity. When I inquire about the lack of water and electricity, the hotel’s managers tell me that there is a delay in the renewal of the lease contract. I believe that this is a method used by hotels to pressure responsible officials to pay overdue compensation to hotels for their hosting of displaced persons. We IDPs are abused and used as a pressure card. Sometimes, the absence of services becomes intolerable. Hotels do not operate their generators to supply us with electricity, and the elevators in this six-story hotel have been out of order since August 15, 2014, the day of our arrival. I personally do not care much, because I am physically fit. But sick and elderly people, who have trouble walking and climbing stairs, are suffering."
Abu Ali also told Masarat about the challenges posed by local security policies. "There are strict measures inside the city of Karbala, especially during religious occasions. Those living in hotels are not allowed to leave them, and in some cases, security officers purchase IDPs’ necessities for them so as not to let them go down to the streets."
Abu Ali yearns to see his relatives, whom he hasn’t seen in months. He speaks with agony about the treatment IDPs receive at checkpoints. "We are not allowed to visit other Iraqi governorates because of the sponsor system. They treat us in a cruel, inhuman, and immoral manner.”
Even in the markets, Abu Ali faces discriminatory behavior oppressive to IDPs, which makes them feel like strangers in their own country. "When we go to the marketplace, we frequently get offended by shop owners and taxi drivers, which hurts our dignity, and has a strong, negative impact on us. We thought that we would be treated with more compassion, especially in the city of the shrine of Imam Hussein, a holy site for the Shabak.”
Abu Ali concluded: “Despite all our suffering, not one official from the Karbala Provincial Council has visited us since our arrival. We prefer to be killed by ISIS than to live a life of humiliation."



http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2015/4/16/iraq-ramadi-fighting-intensifies-as-tribes-wait-for-arms#sthash.ghS7bIZa.dpuf.

16 April 2015: The fighting in Anbar has prompted a mass exodus from the province. Kerbala, a mainly Shia city, said it was open to refugee families from the mainly Sunni Ramadi. 

Ghanim al-Aifan, the head of Anbar's tribal council, told al-Araby al-Jadeed: "The residents of Karbala have warmly welcomed the refugees into their homes and treated them graciously and hospitably. This crisis has shown the true nature of the Arab tribes in Karbala and in Iraq and the unity of Iraqis from all sects and ethnicities.

Nail al-Khikani, a Kerbala Sheikh, said: "Everyone is having to deal the country’s problems. We all have a common enemy and all Iraqis must unite against IS and against any foreign intervention that intends to harm Iraq."

However, refugees fleeing the province said Iraqi security forces had prevended them from entering Baghdad. 

Security forces required them to provide proof of guarantors among relatives or friends inside the capital.


https://twitter.com/abdullahawez/status/592220796510015489 
25 April 2015:  Abadi Gov't didn't let Sunni IDPs of Ramadi to Baghdad without sponsors while sent airplanes to KRG to move Shia IDPs of Talafer to Baghdad!


https://www.yahoo.com/news/four-displaced-iraqi-men-kidnapped-killed-212301079.html?ref=gs 
25 April 2015: 

Baghdad (AFP) - Four men who had fled Iraq's western Anbar province for Baghdad were kidnapped by gunmen Saturday and later found shot in the head, security and medical officials said.

"Unknown gunmen wearing military uniforms broke into one of the houses in the Bayaa area... and kidnapped four men who were displaced from Anbar," a police colonel said on condition of anonymity.

"Less than half an hour later, their bodies were found" in the Bayaa area in southern Baghdad, blindfolded with gunshots to the head, the officer said.

A medical official confirmed that the bodies of four men had been discovered, saying their hands and legs were bound and they had all been shot in the head, though there were other gunshot wounds as well.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-violence-idUSKBN0NJ1MA20150428
28 April 2015: The bodies of six displaced Sunni men were found dumped in the Iraqi capital Baghdad early on Tuesday with bullet wounds to the head, police sources and the head of the tribe to which they belonged said.
The identity of the assailants was unknown, but the victims were all members of the same family who had fled violence in the western province of Anbar and sought refuge in Baghdad's western Jihad district.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/iraq-anbar-forced-displacement-sectarian-borders.html#ixzz4GLQAC7en  

1 May 2015: Should displaced Sunnis be allowed into the Shiite regions since Iraq is their home, and thus everyone’s home, or should they be rejected for fear of terrorist infiltration? Security concerns are of great importance; the city of Diwaniyah, for instance, rejected refugees on April 21.

Political scientist Ahmed Abyad attributed the refusal to allow displaced Sunnis into Shiite cities to sectarian reasons in his statement to Sky News Arabia on April 19.

However, writer and political analyst Ali Mared attributed the refusal to allow displaced Sunnis into Baghdad and Shiite areas to the “Sunnis themselves.” He told Al-Monitor that the reason is “the Sunnis’ rebellion and the violence, unrest and instability it generated in Sunni-dominated areas. The early stages of this violence were represented by the organized displacement of Shiites who lived in Sunni-dominated areas that have been completely cleared from a Shiite presence.”

He added, “The paradox today is that the residents of Sunni areas, where violence peaked under IS control, fled to the [Shiite] Popular Mobilization Units and the Shiite cities that provided them with protection and care, despite the scars of the near past."

The head of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, Hakem al-Zameli, told Al-Sumaria TV on April 21, “Hundreds of Sunni displaced families from Mosul and Tikrit were recruited by IS to penetrate security in Baghdad under the pretext of displacement.”

Journalist-writer Ahmed Jabbar Ghareb said the opposite. In an interview with Al-Monitor, he cleared all those displaced since 2003 from what happened and is still happening. He believes that the people were forced to migrate, and that the forced displacement happening today is caused by the attacks waged by IS on densely populated Sunni cities such as Fallujah, Ramadi and areas west of Baghdad.

"The people of Anbar are forced to flee to Baghdad and Shiite areas that surround their province, as they have no other refuge, especially since other surrounding areas are deserts that are not suitable to live in,” he said.

Social researcher Sabah Kadhim told Al-Monitor: “Domestic migrations have become a common phenomenon in Iraq since the era of Saddam Hussein's regime, which forced Kurds to migrate in the 1970s to Arab areas for the purpose of dissolving their national identity. Saddam’s regime also forced the Shiite residents of the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq to migrate in the 1980s, under the pretext of not supporting the Shiite opposition at the time. After 2003, the civil war and the armed actions of al-Qaeda, and then IS, forced the Shiite minorities in Sunni areas to move toward Baghdad and central and southern Iraq.”

....

Abdel Hadi conceded “sectarian revenge is still present,” giving the example of “the position taken by the local government in Karbala, which has decided to prevent displaced people from entering the province.”

Policies in Iraq after 2003 drew sectarian borders between citizens of the same country, which have become difficult to cross, even in times of humanitarian crises. This is clearly reflected in the crisis of Anbar’s displaced people, where political interests and sectarian positions overruled humanitarian emotions.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/iraq-sunni-shiite-isis-krg-idp-pmu-laylan.html#ixzz4GLTZ9WzI 

6 May 2015: Sunni Arabs relatively close to the capital are instead being refused entry to Baghdad and go north, conditions allowing, though many are subsequently barred from the larger cities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In the Laylan camp for internally displaced persons (IDP), just southeast of Kirkuk in one of Iraq’s disputed territories, one Sunni family from Muqdadiyah recounts being shelled by government forces and having relatives "disappeared" by Shiite militias. Four of the children were killed by Iraqi government airstrikes in the fall of 2014, their father told Al-Monitor, and shrapnel is still embedded in his remaining three sons’ bodies. They have not been able to get past checkpoints to reach health care facilities in Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk, despite referrals from other facilities.

Al-Monitor was shown pictures of the family’s mutilated flatbed truck, hit while several children were in the vehicle. The family was forced to wait for six hours along the road by continued bombing, and several of the injured died during that time.

One of the girls in the tent with them, a 7-year-old relative named Nour, does not have ID papers. "Her father had them with him when he stayed behind to bury the bodies" of the relatives who had died of wounds from the airstrikes, said one man. "He was later taken by the Shiite militias along the road," he explained, rattling off the names of various groups within the Popular Mobilization Units active in the area.

Along the road between Kalar and Jalawla, still an uninhabited militarized zone months after being retaken from IS, Al-Monitor spoke to other internally displaced Iraqis.

The inhabitants said that they had initially been staying inside a school in Kulajo after being displaced by the fighting, but had later been transferred to this informal tented encampment.

They said that the area — still muddy on Al-Monitor’s visit in late March — had been recently flooded by rain, and that it would likely be filled with scorpions and snakes in the summer months. Schools are too far away for the children to attend. The residents live in limbo, receiving aid at irregular intervals from tribal leaders and some nongovernmental organizations, a resident who identified himself as the "camp manager" told Al-Monitor.

The man, a former shop owner from Muqdadiyah who asked not to be named, said, "If we go back, the arrests will start" by the Shiite militias, implying that such arrests would be indiscriminate and sectarian-based.

Southeast of the capital, the Nabi Younes camp in Nahrawan is much better equipped. Rows of container housing with electricity, running water and television are raised off the ground, asphalt roads running between them. The camp, carefully guarded by Iraqi troops, includes a soccer field and elementary school. House numbers are scrawled in black on the otherwise monotonous white buildings and a dusty Iraqi flag flies near a protective fence around the camp.

Images of the historical Muslim figure Hussein, revered by the Shiite sect and typically depicted as a light-skinned man with auburn flowing locks, and various Shiite slogans such as "Ya Zahra" in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter are ubiquitous. Similar images dot the sides of the road on the way from Baghdad, with one on a government checkpoint as well.

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Ninewa_governorate_profile_May_2015.pdf
7 May 2015: In turn, the influx  of IDPs pushed many governorates, such as Baghdad and Karbala, to enforce laws  requiring IDPs to obtain a local sponsor upon their arrival. This reportedly added  to suffering of IDPs and made their escape even more difficult, resulting in tens of  dozens of IDPs were held in the outskirts of the governorate.



http://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2015/05/19/un-watchdog-blasts-iraq-over-idp-treatment
19 May 2015: Since the start of the exodus from Anbar in January last year, Sunni IDPs have felt threatened in the largely-Shia Baghdad. In recent weeks, following the new arrivals from Ramadi, there has been an uptick in violent incidents.
Twenty-seven-year-old Bilal Al-Fahdawi, a Sunni, who fled to the capital from Ramadi in April, has since left the city because of a death threat against his uncle, painted on wall near to where they were staying.
“The security forces harassed us and treated us like we were strangers and criminals. There is a big campaign against,” the father-of-one said.
“A lot of people would rather go back home to Anbar and live under IS, rather than be threatened here by militias,” he added, referring to Shia Muslim groups who have been fighting alongside the formal government armed forces.
“My uncle is displaced from Anbar too and moved to a mixed neighbourhood where militias are in control, but one day the militias painted on his house's wall ‘leave the area or you will be dead soon’”.

An Iraqi aid worker, Abu Khaled,* supporting Anbar IDPs through a local NGO, told IRIN: "These people are facing bitter conditions: they have been chased and harassed by militias, facing the threat of constant arrest and false accusations against them.

“They are being discriminated against on sectarian bases and no-one responds to them because they are Sunnis,” he claimed, complaining about the lack of outside support his organization had received from international aid agencies.


http://www.rferl.org/a/27031699.html
22 May 2015: Ramadi Refugees Face Desperate Humanitarian Situation As They Wait To Cross Into Baghdad

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/world/middleeast/sunnis-fleeing-islamic-state-fight-turned-away-in-iraq.html 
27 May 2015:
On days that the bridge is open, for instance, not everyone can reach safe areas. To get to Baghdad, Anbar civilians need to have a sponsor in the capital who can reach them and escort them into the city, as Mr. Talib was trying to do. Some Baghdad residents have exploited this system, selling sponsorship to the displaced for as much as $700, according to the International Rescue Committee, an aid organization. The group warned this week that the strict security checks and chokeholds at checkpoints near Baghdad are forcing people to return to areas where fighting is raging.
.....
In Baghdad, thousands of Sunni civilians who fled violence in Anbar are living in 32 mosques scattered around the city, where they are essentially quarantined.
“The government, if they see any identification from Anbar, they will ask them, ‘What are you doing?’ ” said Imad Jassim, the director of the Umm al-Qura mosque, the capital’s largest Sunni mosque, where about 900 people from Anbar are living.
Mr. Jassim advises them not to leave the mosque premises. “To be honest, we are afraid,” he said. “Maybe some militias are hanging around and could kill them.” 

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/iraq-ramadi-displaced-baghdad-restrictions-terrorism.html#ixzz4GLVmggwG

28 May 2015:media outlets close to the authorities talked about something completely different from April 19 to May 18. The media claimed that the entry of displaced people into Baghdad aims to bring down the capital, based on statements issued by security and political leaders May 17. The latter disputed the existence of any justification for this massive and sudden displacement and described the refugee exodus as a Trojan horse.

As a result of these positions, Ramadi's displaced faced complex procedures to enter the capital of their country, including the requirement of a sponsor.

On April 19, the governor of Babil province, Sadeq Madloul al-Sultani, issued a decision prohibiting the entry of displaced, particularly young people.

Brig. Saad Maan, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, conveyed another picture of the government’s behavior with the displaced people. He told Al-Monitor, “The ministry did everything it can to host the largest number of displaced people without neglecting the security imperatives in Baghdad.” 

“There are a lot of exaggerations with respect to the sponsor issue," he said. "The Iraqi security services are trying to work with the available means to accommodate tens of thousands of people. The government issued strict instructions to deal in a humanitarian manner with the waves of displaced people and to provide them with all the necessary requirements.”

Maan’s statement does not deny the existence of abusive procedures toward the displaced people of Anbar, which stirred numerous reactions. In a speech aired May 16, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi stated that these procedures represent how Shiites treat Sunnis, calling on the people of Anbar to return to their homes.

The displaced people of Anbar did not respond to Baghdadi’s call, just like hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Salahuddin, Diyala and Mosul before them. These people refused to return to their cities, preferring to live as refugees in difficult conditions under Baghdad’s government or the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) rather than living under the rule of IS.

Amid the crises of receiving an influx of displaced people, two approaches emerged:

The first has been adopted by the KRG, which since 2006 has imposed the sponsorship system on Arabs when the security situation in the Kurdistan region was threatened by security breaches. But when faced with the exodus of refugees from Mosul in June 2014, the KRG lifted the condition and hosted the displaced, providing them with needed assistance. This had a profound social impact and eased relations that were strained between Sunnis and Kurds for years.

The second approach has been adopted by Baghdad toward the displaced, particularly the displaced people of Anbar. This is an approach of strained relations, doubts and fears, and has led to the loss of an opportunity to achieve decisive social progress with respect to Sunni-Shiite differences by winning over the displaced.

This can be seen in the official position of the government, which eventually opened the gates of Baghdad in front of the displaced. It is related to and confirmed by the positions of the social elites, political parties, the media and security forces. Instead of turning the displacement of Anbar’s residents to their capital into an opportunity to consecrate unified action to fight IS, these powers kept stirring sectarian strife, which constituted a free service for IS.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/29/iraq-curbs-put-wars-displaced-risk
29 May 2015: On May 15, Chaloka Beyani, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, concluded a visit to Iraq, saying that he was disturbed by “reports of IDPs being barred entry” to Baghdad and other areas “on the basis of their identity,” and “deeply concern[ed]” about guarantor requirements.

Several thousand people from Anbar who have succeeded in entering Baghdad have flown from Baghdad to Erbil, apparently because they did not feel safe in the capital. Five Anbaris told Human Rights Watch that as Sunnis they felt threatened by Shia militias and government security forces in Baghdad.

On May 14, Shia pilgrims on the way to the Imam Kazhim shrine passed through Baghdad’s mostly Sunni Adhamiyya neighborhood. Video evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch shows some shouting anti-Sunni slogans. The houses of Sunnis and a Sunni religious endowment building were set on fire, drawing condemnation from the UN.

Human Rights Watch learned from family members of one kidnapping for ransom of displaced people from Ramadi at a checkpoint in Baghdad in April, apparently by self-described Shia militia members, but the family did not want to make details public, fearing further attacks.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/restrictions-on-sunnis-fleeing-violence-deepen-iraqs-sectarian-divide-1433453376
4 June 2015:

On the outskirts of the capital and 50 miles southeast of Ramadi, Bzeibez is the only crossing over the Euphrates river between Anbar and the capital Baghdad. For five days after Ramadi fell to the Sunni extremists of Islamic State on May 17, the bridge was either completely or intermittently closed to those fleeing violence, officials at the bridge and in Baghdad said.

“Every time Daesh takes an area, we see a flood of people, and we get orders from the Baghdad side to close the bridge,” said Maj.Abdelsamih Fadel at the bridge. Like other officials there, he defended the policy as necessary to prevent the spread of Islamic State and protect the security of Baghdad.

.....

The new procedures to handle the exodus from Anbar, including a sponsorship system and new ID cards, have spooked those fleeing the province. Many have chosen to seek refuge in the Shiite provinces of southern Iraq or the Kurdish-controlled north instead of nearby Baghdad.

Thousands have also returned in recent weeks to any area of relative safety inside Anbar. Among half a dozen families interviewed as they were walking back to the province on Wednesday, some said they were returning to areas around Ramadi, where fighting continues.

.....

In Baghdad, the nearly bankrupt government took the surprising step last week of arranging free flights out of the capital for more than 1,500 displaced Anbar residents to Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region in the north. Five flights took off last week carrying the Anbar displaced, a spokesman for the transportation ministry said.

Hunein al-Kaddo, deputy head of the parliament’s committee on migration and displacement, said more than 100,000 displaced from Anbar are in Baghdad and more than 400,000 are in the Kurdish-controlled north.

http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/flight-to-safety-sunnis-flee-baghdad-for-sanctuary-in-iraqi-kurdistan#full
16 June 2015:

Thousands of Sunni Arabs are streaming into Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to escape the fighting in Anbar province and a sectarian backlash in government-held areas.

With land crossings blocked by the conflict, most fly into Kurdistan from Baghdad, eschewing the option of staying in the capital for fear of reprisals by Shiite militias.

....

There are no official figures on how many have made their way to the Kurdish region, but Falah Mustafa Bakir, minister of foreign relations in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), told The National that about 50,000 people from Anbar had arrived since Ramadi fell.

“Most of them have come in through airlines. From Baghdad to Erbil and maybe also to Suleimaniya as well,” he said.

Humanitarian organisations put the number at about 25,000, with more arriving daily.

“Every day we hear of more displaced people who have arrived from Baghdad,” said Nora Gatto, a community organiser at Un Ponte Per, an Italian NGO that helps the newly arrived receive basic services.

The KRG has already taken in more than a million displaced Iraqis — about a third of the country’s total — as well as about 240,000 Syrian refugees. Its sprawling network of refugee camps is packed to the brim, and many people who fled the fighting in Anbar have found shelter in areas outside of cities such as Erbil or nearby Shaqlawa, where rents are more affordable.

http://www.internal-displacement.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/iraq/2015/iraq-idps-caught-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-as-displacement-crisis-deepens

30 June 2015: Baghdad attracts a large number of IDPs due to its proximity to conflict areas and a lower cost of living compared to the Kurdish region. Since the 2014 conflict, most IDPs fleeing to Baghdad have been Sunni Arabs escaping Anbar following heavy clashes between ISIL and ISF (IOM, September 2014). Some IDPs have also used Baghdad as a transit point, going either northward to the KRI or southern Iraq.

Many IDPs have also sought refuge in the southern governorates. Ninety four per cent of IDPs in Najaf and 89 per cent in Karbala are originally from Ninewa (IOM, June 2015). As ISIL expanded its presence into the Ninewa Plains families who had earlier sought refuge among other minorities, suffered secondary displacement, this time fleeing to predominantly Shiite government strongholds (Al Araaby, April 2015). The offensive on Ramadi in May 2015 was accompanied by a wave of insecurity in the capital, where some IDPs have been forced to flee Baghdad where they had initially taken refuge, after being threatened by militias (IRIN, May 2015).

http://iomiraq.net/reports/kerbala-governorate-profile-june-2015
30 June 2015: Kerbala district, which is an administrative capital of the govnernorate hosts the largest share of IDPs, amounting to 68,244 IDP individuals. 95% of whom were driven from Ninewa.

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Kerbala_governorate_profile_June_2015.pdf
June 2015:  Reportedly, due to the August 2014 decision  of local authorities IDPs who originate in Anbar are required to provide a local sponsor  upon their arrival to Kerbala district. In May, the MoMD registration process covered only IDPs who originate in Anbar, due to  the statistical purposes.




http://www.wsj.com/articles/arabs-fleeing-islamic-state-upset-kurdistans-ethnic-balance-1435833347
2 July 2015:

In all, more than 1.5 million people from elsewhere in Iraq have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region since the country’s Sunni heartland became engulfed by the war with Islamic State, with more arriving each day.

For a region with a population of about 5.2 million, this is a huge demographic transformation.

http://millat.co/english/en_news/post_detail.php?id=1823
10 July 2015:
Statistic data confirm that almost 2 million refugees from Iraqi cities are in Kurdistan region and everyday three passenger planes full of Sunni Arab refugees arrive in Kurdistan region from Baghdad apart from hundreds others using land transportation.
Journalist Sartip Jawhar revealed latest refugee figures in Kurdistan region stating that nearly 2 million refugees from middle and western parts of Iraq are currently living in Kurdistan region.
Jawhar added “Baghdad and other cities in middle and south of Iraq do not accept Sunni refugees easily, and only in the period of 15 April to 20 May 2015 34737 families from Anbar province and surrounding areas displaced to Kurdistan region.



http://iomiraq.net/reports/najaf-governorate-profile-june-2015
July 30, 2015: Najaf district .... IDPs, amounting to 74,118 IDP individuals. 95% of whom were driven from Ninewa. The presence of religious buildings is an additional pull factor for those who are currently being accommodated by Najaf and Kufa districts. In general, Najaf district’s population make-up is very diverse and comprises Shabak, Turkmen and Arab groups. Kufa holds 10% of IDPs who reside in the governorate, 92% of whom moved here from Ninewa.
Reportedly, unlike IDPs who displace from Anbar [mostly Sunni Arabs], those who originate in Ninewa [mostly Shia Turkmen] are not required to obtain a local sponsor upon their arrival to the governorate.





https://www.iom.int/news/displacement-iraq-exceeds-32-million-iom
Oct 16, 2015: The majority (87 per cent) of IDPs are reported to be originally from three governorates: Anbar, 42 per cent (1,334,592 individuals); Ninewa, 32 per cent (1,011,606); and Salah al-Din, 13 per cent (407,142).
.... 
The governorates hosting the largest IDP populations remain: Anbar, 18 per cent (583,050 individuals); Baghdad, 18 per cent (577,584); Dohuk, 13 per cent (426,966); Kirkuk, 13 per cent (401,280); Erbil, 9 per cent (284,310); Ninewa, 6 per cent (203,652); and Sulaymaniyah, 5 per cent (161,724). These seven governorates collectively host 82 per cent of the total identified IDP population.



http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/12/religious-diplomacy-iraq
Dec 2015:
Take another recent vignette. Jawad al-Khoei, a Shia cleric who is preparing the new study centre, reacted in a rather unexpected way when a Christian bishop was about to enter the Imam Ali Shrine and discreetly tried to hide his crucifix in his cassock. "I told [the Christian prelate] he could only enter if he kept it [in view]," recalls Mr Khoei, a senior lecturer at the Shia seminary in Najaf and a follower of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered leader of Shia Islam. He adds that he is discussing a papal visit to Najaf with the Vatican. Another of Mr Sistani’s followers in Lebanon gives sermons in Beirut’s Christian churches.
It was not always so. A century ago, the country’s Shia clergy considered it sacrilege to shake hands or sit at table with non-Muslims, on grounds that the presence of non-believers would render their food impure. But now a historical reversal seems to be going on. For centuries, Iraq's multi-faith tradition has been preserved under Sunni leadership; now, as Sunni fanatics assault that tradition, the Shia clerics of Najaf are keen to emphasise their openness to others.
The access enjoyed by outsiders to the Imam Ali Shrine marks a contrast with many other holy places. Only Muslims may visit Mecca; the Ottoman system of granting permits to non-Muslims was stopped when the Saudis took over the place. Iran restricts non-Muslim entry to Fatima Masumeh, the holiest shrine in its theological centre of Qom. As part of a delicate balance, Israel curbs the access of non-Muslims to Islam’s third holiest shrine, al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.
But Najaf’s clerics pride themselves on their open-door policy. “Holy places are for all believers,” says Ezzedin al-Hakim (pictured, below), a son of another Grand Ayatollah.

Set to open next spring, the al-Balaghi Interfaith Academy is named after an ayatollah who learned Hebrew with the rabbis who once taught at the prophet Ezekiel’s tomb, a sacred site located half an hour's drive away at Dhul-Kifl (pictured, below). The centre is aimed at the 13,000 Shia seminarians studying in Najaf, and will house seven auditoriums, a library for 1.5m books and a Turkish bath; its teaching staff, says Mr Khoei, will be predominantly non-Muslims.
“We want Yazidis to teach the Yazidi faith, Sabaeans to teach about Sabeans, and Christians to teach Christianity,” he says. Another inter-faith programme is already up and running at the Faculty of Islamic Law at Kufa University, Najaf’s largest college. “We want to turn Najaf into a meeting place of religions,” says Walid Farajallah al-Asali, the faculty dean and a turbaned cleric, speaking after a lecture on the Bablylonian Talmud, the compendium of Jewish law compiled in the Sura Academy, once located nearby. “All Iraqi students know about Judaism is the conflict with Israel. We have to explain the beliefs of Judaism.”
At a book fair at the back of Imam Ali Shrine, Lwiss Saliba, a lecturer from Saint Joseph, Beirut’s Jesuit university, mans a stall of holy texts he has translated and published in Arabic, including scriptures from the Bahai faith, which are formally banned by an Iraqi law from the 1970s as well as in Iran. "The ayatollahs are resolute in their determination to see equal rights for all, regardless of sect,” says Mr Khoei. “If the people elect a Christian as leader, he should lead."
Critics complain that the ayatollahs’ openness has yet to percolate down to their devotees, a charge the clerics say they are addressing. At an evening gathering at Najaf’s Writers' Union, some of the Yazidi and Mandean women dispensed with their scarves and, from the podium, told off Iraq’s education ministry for failing to amend the school textbooks which deride religious minorities, calling the Yazidis Satan-worshippers and berating the Sabeans for bowing to stars. The women received such an enthusiastic reception from the hall that a Christian woman from Baghdad pronounced she would move to Najaf with her family.
But for all Najaf’s outreach, the disappearance of minorities from southern Iraq is almost as pronounced as further north. Amara, a southern city with a hodgepodge of sects on the banks of the Tigris, lost its last Jews 50 years ago, and now its Christians and Mandeans look set to go the same way. Of the 400 Christian families in the city before America’s 2003 invasion, only twelve remain.
“Four families left three weeks ago,” bemoans their community leader, who insists he will be last to go. Mandeans tell a similar tale. In 15 years, their numbers have fallen from 50,000 concentrated in the south to 4,000. Pull factors as well as push ones are to blame, says a Mandean exiled in the Gulf. His clergy have ostracised couples who intermarry and western governments give the region's minorities preferential treatment for migration. “Every parent has to grapple with the dilemma of whether he could offer his children a better life abroad,” he says.
But intolerance also plays its part. For all the clerical reprimands, Shia militias have engaged in sectarian cleansing, chasing out long-standing Sunni communities across much of the south. Mandean parents at their faith's temple in Basra, the main southern city, worry that teachers are encouraging students to mock their daughters for not wearing the veil. Some say they have been spat on."


http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/01/29/464717851/the-fragile-peace-of-an-iraqi-city-once-run-by-isis
29 Jan 2016: In Salahaddin, the province of which Tikrit is the capital, officials say there are about 120,000 Sunnis not allowed back to the Shiite areas where their homes are. There's an elaborate, though not yet complete plan for tribal compensation to those who lost families and property when ISIS was in control. However, it would only benefit Shiite tribes, although many Sunnis were targeted by ISIS too.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/04/iraq-shia-leaders-ready-sectarian-healing-isis-sunni-160405060514772.html

5 April 2016: An optimistic bloc leader explained that hundreds of thousands of Sunni refugees have lived in predominately Shia areas such as Karbala for the past year and a half, their children going to school with Shia families, with no security problems. This has reopened the people's eyes to each other in a way that has been rarer and rarer since 2003 but which could now offer hope for the future. https://twitter.com/JoelWing2/status/738841666409336832 3 June 2016: Najaf 79K Karbala 68K lead way with IDPs in southern Iraq and almost all of those are from Ninewa