GARMIYAN, Kurdistan Region — Despite the Iraqi province’s liberation from Islamic State (ISIS), families from Babil displaced to the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan camps say they can’t return home because of the threat of Shiites militias.

The Babil IDPs claim that Shiite militia groups, notably Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah, have occupied their town, and not let the original inhabitants, who now live in displacement, return home.

"Jurf Sakhar has been liberated since August 2014, but Hezbollah has taken control and does not let anyone in, including the government,” Marwan Khdhair, a refugee from Jurf Sakhar who now lives in Tazade camp in the Garmyan Administration, told Rudaw’s Halo Mohammed on March 8.

“They have built many things in it, including prisons which are outside the control of the government. They have even built weapon manufacturing factories in it,” added Khdhair.

Kataib Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed militia falling under the umbrella of Iraq's predominantly Shiite militia network known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi).

"Who is able to return to Jurf Sakhar? If you do, you are arrested instantly. Part of the government and the political parties have controlled it. Whoever returns, might end up in the prison and you do not know what will happen to you," Khdhair Abbas, a displaced man in the camp from Jurf Sakhar told Mohammed.

According to Bestoon Zhalayi, the head of the humanitarian affairs at the Garmiyan Administration, a total of 203 families - all Sunni - from the Diyala, Salahaddin, Nineveh, and Babil provinces have lived in the Tazade camp in Garmiyan since 2014.

Of this number, 73 families come from one small town named Jurf Sakhar, Babil province which is 60 kilometers southwest of Baghdad. Though the town has been liberated from ISIS since August 2014, there is no glimmer of hope for them to return home after seven years.

"The reason why part of the displaced people have opted to stay due to political and social issues. That is why they cannot return to their areas of origin. It has created problems for many of them. Some of them want the government to issue permits for them to be able to return, but many of them don’t get them. Even if one family gets it, they will have to pay 500,000 dinars ... There are families that cannot pay this money, where would they get it?" Mofaq Ahmed, an IDP from Jurf Sakhar, said.

According to Zhalayi, 13,340 Arab families from the other parts of Iraq have taken shelter in the Garmiyan camps.

Of this number, only 945 families live in the Tazade, Qoratu, and Alwand. The remaining have dispersed along with many towns and villages of Garmiyan.

"I would like to return to my area. This is where I belong and my land is. Though there is peace and security here, and I do not have a bad thing to say about here. Yet, my heart is in my hometown. I would like to return there," says Jasim Khamis, another IDP from Jurf Sakhar.

Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali

Rudaw