Iraq – Emergency Tracking - Displacement and Returns to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj Districts (30 October - 21 November 2020)

Between 30 October and 21 November, DTM tracked 6,287 individuals (1,191 families) returning to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj districts in Iraq’s Ninewa Governorate.
This brings the total number of individuals who have taken this route to 40,724 (7,650 families) since data collection commenced on 8 June 2020.

In this reporting period, the average number of daily individual arrivals was 258 to Sinjar and 16 to Al-Ba’aj. In this period, the daily number of arrivals to Sinjar is higher than the overall daily average since 8 June (226), while the daily average number of arrivals to Al-Ba’aj is consistent with overall average since 8 June (21).

Of those individuals who returned between 30 October and 21 November, a total of 5,925 were recorded in Sinjar (94%) and 362 were recorded in Al-Ba’aj (6%) – broadly consistent with the rates of individuals’ districts of arrival since 8 June (91% to Sinjar and 9% to Al-Ba’aj). In almost all assessed locations, all individuals were identified as Yazidis, with this group composing 97 per cent of all individuals that have returned to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj since 8 June. Additionally, three per cent of all individuals have been identified as Kurd Sunni Muslims, and less than one per cent have been identified as Kurd Shia Muslims or Arab Sunni Muslims. The majority of these latter three groups were recorded as arriving to Sinjar District’s sub-districts of Markaz Sinjar and Qaeyrrawan, and Al-Ba’aj District’s sub-district of Al-Qahtaniya.

The most common sub-district of arrival was Al-Shamal with 3,633 individuals (58%), followed by Markaz Sinjar with 1,279 individuals (20%). Together, these two sub-districts comprise 78 per cent of all individuals recorded as having arrived to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj since data collection commenced on 8 June.
Otherwise, 1,013 individuals arrived to the sub-district of Qaeyrrawan (16%) and 362 arrived to Al-Qahtaniyah (6%).

Of those individuals identified as returning between 30 October and 21 November, 5,345 were recorded as returnees (85%), while the remaining 942 were recorded as out-of-camp IDPs (15%). This represents a deviation from the overall proportion of individuals having been identified as returnees (76%) and out-of-camp IDPs (24%) since 8 June.

Additionally, between 30 October and 21 November, a total of 5,272 individuals were recorded as departing from Dahuk Governorate (84%) – which is similar to the rates of individuals having departed from there since 8 June (81%). As with all previous rounds, between 30 October and 21 November, the majority of individuals from Dahuk were recorded as coming from the districts of Sumel (47% of all individuals) and Zakho (33%). The remaining individuals from Dahuk Governorate were recorded as coming from the districts of Amedi (2% of all individuals) and Dahuk (2% of all individuals).

Additionally, between 30 October and 21 November, a further 931 individuals were recorded as having come from within Ninewa (15%), mainly from Al-Shikhan (13% of all individuals), and the rest came from and Sinjar and Tilkaif (both 1%). This proportion (15%) of individuals recorded as having come from Ninewa between 30 October and 21 November is broadly consistent with the overall proportion of individuals recorded as having come from there since 8 June (18%). Otherwise, 65 individuals arrived from Sulaymaniyah Governorate (1%), while 19 individuals were recorded as arriving from Erbil Governorate (<1% of all individuals).

Since 8 June, almost all individuals have been recorded as having departed from Sumel (49% of all individuals), Zakho (28%), and Al-Shikhan districts (14%)