Iraq – Emergency Tracking - Displacement and returns to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj districts ( 8 June – 2 September 2020)

Between 22 August and 2 September 2020, DTM tracked 2,258 individuals (431 families) returning to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj districts in Iraq’s Ninewa governorate. This brings the total number of individuals that have taken this route to 18,214 (3,366 families) since data collection commenced on 8 June.

In this reporting period, the average number of daily individual arrivals was 178 to Sinjar and 26 to Al-Ba’aj. This is broadly consistent with the overall daily average number of arrivals since 8 June; however, it is significantly higher than the daily averages recorded in the previous reporting period (48 to Sinjar and 7 to Al-Ba’aj). This increase was due to a significant number of individuals arriving in this period rather than taking their planned journey in August, due to temporary movement restrictions introduced in their displacement camp in Sumel District following an outbreak of Coronavirus.

Of those individuals who returned between 22 August and 2 September, a total of 2,130 were recorded in Sinjar (94%) and 128 were recorded in Al-Ba’aj (6%) – broadly consistent with the rates of individuals’ districts of arrival since 8 June.
The most common sub-district of arrival was Al-Shamal with 1,452 individuals (64%), followed by Markaz Sinjar with 472 individuals (21%). Together, these two sub-districts comprise 82% of all individuals recorded as having arrived to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj since data collection commenced on 8 June.

Of those individuals identified as returning between 22 August and 2 September, 1,837 were recorded as returnees (81%), while the remaining 421 were recorded as out-of-camp IDPs (19%). This represents a deviation from the overall proportion of individuals having been identified as returnees (68%) and IDPs (32%) since 8 June.