The IRIN humanitarian news service has recently reported that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense will evict 300 internally displaced people who have established residence in a former military base in Babil Province. The ministry has given the internal refugees a week to relocate and according to the provincal director of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Qais al-Zubaidi, such a quick relocation will not be without difficulty:
Al-Zubaidi added that a provincial committee had been formed to find a solution
for these families; either by re-housing them in an abandoned government
building or by erecting a new camp for them.“But most probably we will get a piece of land in the suburbs [of Hilla] from the city’s municipality to erect more than 100 tents for them and supply them with food and non-food items,” al-Zubaidi said. “It is indeed a problem. It will be difficult for us to
erect a camp in four or five days as we are in winter and it is raining nowadays. Because of that we need more time.”
For internally displaced persons, the difficulty in securing living space is exacerbated by governmental actions such as this which offers minimal compensation.