EASO COI Report. Internal mobility

English

The EASO COI Report: Iraq – Internal mobility aims to provide information on legal and practical aspects of mobility in Iraq. The report was drafted by the EASO COI Sector in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology, and was reviewed by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board and the Hungarian Immigration and Asylum Office’s Centre for Documentation. In addition, the report was reviewed by the external expert Dr Geraldine Chatelard, social anthropologist and historian of contemporary Middle Eastern studies.

The drafting of this report was finalised in November 2018. Any event taking place after this date is not included in this report.

Policy

As a result of an increase in violence and terrorist acts, the security and human rights situation in Iraq has deteriorated since 2013 and further escalated with the ground offensive that IS launched in June 2014. This has led to a bloody internal armed conflict. Citizens are being targeted by the conflicting parties for ethnic, religious or political reasons. In 2015, the military pressure on IS increased and the Iraqi Security Forces, backed by Shia militias and the Peshmerga, recaptured some areas from it. In 2016, IS lost more ground to government forces. The recapture of IS-controlled areas has clearly led to an improvement in the general security situation in Iraq. In 2017, violence continued to decrease in Baghdad.

The available information shows that there are still significant differences in the level of violence and the impact of the IS ground offensive according to the region considered. These strong regional variations characterise the security and human rights situation in Iraq. This means concretely that the situation in Central Iraq is different from the situation in South Iraq and the Kurdish Autonomous Region.

Land: 
Iraq

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