This Protection Needs Overview documents findings from protection monitoring efforts conducted between April and September 2023 in the Iraqi governorates of Anbar, Ninewa, and Kirkuk. This report details protection concerns of communities experiencing displacement, refugees and asylum seekers, those who have returned to their areas of origin, and host communities nearly six years after the defeat of the ISIS group in Iraq and is the follow on to the Protection Needs Overview: October 2022-March 2023. 511 household-level surveys, 204 key informant interviews, and 108 focus group discussions with 756 individuals contributed to the findings in this report.

Key findings:

  • Basic needs such as livelihood report, healthcare, and legal assistance remain difficult to access for all surveyed communities. The primary reason is high cost of services.
  • Heightened vulnerabilities remain for specific groups, including women and children. More than half of all respondents indicated awareness of school-aged children working in their communities. For Syrian refugee households, 41% reported one or more children actively engaged in child labor.
  • More than 40% of respondents indicated one or more household members missing critical civil documentation.
  • The majority of IDPs expressed an unwillingness to return to their areas of origin (AoO), citing factors such as lack of livelihoods in their AoO, housing insecurity, and lack of access to basic services. The majority of refugees and asylum seekers prefer to stay in their areas of displacement.
  • 82% of respondents perceived the integration process between returnees/IDPs and host communities as positive, rating it as "good" or "very good." 18% of participants reported experiencing difficulties with the integration process. Returns from Al Hol and Jeddah camps fueled tensions and unrest in communities. Households with perceived affiliation to armed groups reported higher-than-average barriers to local integration and social cohesion concerns.
  • During the period covered in this report, Ninewa governorate showed higher-than-average rates of eviction risks, largely due to the closure of Jeddah 5 camp. 43% of respondents from Ninewa reported eviction threats in Quarter 2 of 2023, as compared to 16% of respondents in general.
  • Nearly one third of returnee households experienced secondary displacement post-return to area of origin, due to communal and tribal issues, inability to access basic services, and security concerns.

Available documents & links