Iraq – Emergency Tracking - Displacement and Returns to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj Districts (8 June – 17 September 2020)

Between 22 August and 2 September 2020, DTM tracked 3,278 individuals (644 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 22,263 (4,153 families) since data collection commenced on 8 June.

In this reporting period, the average number of daily individual arrivals was 198 to Sinjar and 21 to Al-Ba’aj. This is consistent with the overall daily average number of arrivals since 8 June; however, it is significantly higher than the daily averages recorded in the month of August (133 to Sinjar and 13 to Al-Ba’aj). The higher number of arrivals in September can be explained by increased assistance that is being provided to IDPs in returning to Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj districts.

Of those individuals who returned between 3 and 17 September, a total of 2,966 were recorded in Sinjar (90%) and 312 were recorded in Al-Ba’aj (10%) – broadly consistent with the rates of individuals’ districts of arrival since 8 June.
The most common sub-district of arrival was Al-Shamal with 1,855 individuals (57%), followed by Markaz Sinjar with 723 individuals (22%). Together, these two sub-districts comprise 81% 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 3 and 17 September, 2,892 were recorded as returnees (88%), while the remaining 386 were recorded as out-of-camp IDPs (12%). This represents a deviation from the overall proportion of individuals having been identified as returnees (71%) and out-of-camp IDPs (29%) since 8 June.