The Yazidi minority suffered horrors and genocide during the ISIS era when the group kidnapped thousands of Yazidis and sold them into slavery. Years later, many tens of thousands of the minority group live in displaced persons camps primarily in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq due to infighting and insecurity that has meant many cannot return home to Sinjar. A fire this week destroyed more than 450 shelters in Sharya camp.
The camp is located near Dohuk. It is a hot and cramped area and despite many years there has been no solution by the local authorities for the people that live in the camp. I visited the place in 2019 and saw the conditions, with people living in tents in rows, with many needing work and having the most basic of living conditions. These are families who fled genocide and in many cases had relatives kidnapped or killed by ISIS. In some cases their relatives survived and were able to return, only to find themselves living in a camp without the support they need to find their way after the horrors of genocide.
Unfortunately this is not the first time the world has abandoned genocide survivors to life in displaced persons or refugee camps. After the Holocaust many Jews had to live in IDP camps, some of which were not closed for years.
Supporters of the victims who now are homeless in Sharya after the fire have begun a Go Fund Me campaign to aid the camp. Ashti Heydar writes on the campaign that “according to the authorities, there are many kids and infants that they need an immediate need in terms of clothes, diapers and fresh food. Many people who were in these tents, lost all of their life savings and furniture that they had. It is summer time in Iraq now , this money will also buy supplies to help these families to find a cooler place until everything is settled.
Zirak Hameed wrote on Facebook that the fire that burned the shelters was out of control. “The camp fire truck was broken. The fire was so big that all the fire trucks from Duhok city weren't able to control it. We went to the camp, the fire was next to our center. People were evacuating their tents, faces of disappointments, ladies and women crying helplessly. Hundreds of families are homeless now. All their possessions and what they collected in the past seven years is burned to ashes.”
Sharya camp has received support from many grass roots supporters who care for the Yazidi cause. However the camp’s needs are so large that these initiatives require support and the fire illustrates how tenuous life is for the survivors of genocide.