Migration Ministry: only 10.000 refugees arrived from Tal Afar
The families that were freed west of Mosul.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi government has registered only 10.000 refugees displaced from battles between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in Tal Afar, it said Saturday.
The head of the Ministry of Migration and Displacement department in Nineveh, Khaled al-Obaidi, told Alghad Press that only 10.000 migrants had arrived from Tal Afar.
“The refugees numbers are small, and according to our information, most of them had fled towards Turkey,” said Obaidi. “Most of the town’s region are empty,” he added.
The United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Iraq said last week that at least 30.000 people had fled Tal Afar, but did not specify since when. The organization, however, predicted thousands more to leave as fighting rages between Islamic State militants and Iraqi troops seeking to retake the town.
According to the Iraqi government, nearly three million civilians have been displaced since Islamic State militants declared a self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 and as the government launched a military campaign to eliminate the group. Some officials had, however, been quoted saying in past statements that the official numbers could have missed hundreds of thousands who sought refuge at relatives or other residences outside refugee camps.