3 refugees killed as fire guts camp in Iraq

By Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD (AA) – Three refugees, including two children, were killed on Wednesday in a fire that gutted a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, according to a local security source.

“A fire broke out in five tents in Persfi camp in Dohuk province,” said the source, who preferred to remain unnamed because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said a father and his two children were killed, while his wife and another child sustained severe burns in the fire.

The source did not specify the cause of the blaze, but local media said that the fire was caused by a short circuit.

The Persfi camp is home to 2,500 displaced Iraqis.

A fire in the same camp in December destroyed 21 tents, but without causing any casualties.

There are 27 camps for IDPs in the Kurdish region housing 40,000 families.

Iraqi authorities estimate the number of the displaced civilians in the country at around 770,000.

Most of the IDPs fled from the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Anbar after the Daesh/ISIS terror group captured vast swathes of territory in Iraq in the summer of 2014.

Due to the destruction of their homes, inability to afford basic needs, and the precarious security conditions, many IDPs prefer to stay in the camps.

Iraqi Minister of Immigration, Evan Faeq, has made several pledges to facilitate the return of the displaced civilians to their homes by promising to rehabilitate the infrastructure, rebuild demolished residential homes, and provide job opportunities for the returnees.

*Ibrahim Mukhtar from Ankara contributed to this report