IDP families from Anbar have found refuge in Shaqlawa

D. Morrow

18 September 2014

Shaqlawa

A small tourist resort nestled in the mountains east of Erbil is an unlikely place for the displaced population from Fallujah to end up, but at least 5000 families have taken refuge in its beautiful valleys since January. Shaqlawa is a popular destination for Arab visitors in the winter, but it has become an unlikely home to people who were forced to drive across the country to escape the violence of ISIS. 

Some of these families are staying in unfinished concrete building frames, and others with friendly Kurds who have opened their homes. But the majority took advantage of off-season prices earlier this year to stay in the many hotels that line Shaqlawa’s narrow streets. 

Few of these people were willing to speak with me about their journey (much less be photographed), worried about their own security status in the town. However, a young student from Fallujah named Hamed (name changed) sat in a stairwell with me, out of earshot of his elders to tell me how much he missed his home, and what life was like for him now, in Shaqlawa. 

“There is nothing we wish more than to go home. I miss my bed!” he said. They fled Fallujah in January because of violence, but were trapped in Tikrit for six months. When ISIS militants marched on Tikrit in June, his family of six drove to Kirkuk, dodged the fighting, and made it to Shaqlawa, where they have stayed for the last three months. Another man standing in the hallway pulled out his phone to show a photo he took from the university in Tikrit, a blurry shot of men ducking with guns behind a barrier as an armoured car approached. 

Shaqlawa is peaceful and quiet, but it is not a long-term solution. Employment is tenuous, based on tourism, and with the exception of a few enterprising families who have set up streetside falafel stands, there is little hope for a future here. The children are able to take their exams at school, but they are not attending classes. As I chatted in the stairwell, nine young children lurked around, and all put up their hands when I asked who wanted to return to school. 

No one is prepared for winter, and families are running out of the ability to pay for their accommodation as the months press on. They believe their only option is to return south, despite of – and perhaps in the face of – the conflict. Hamed said that though he was excited to see snow for the first time, many of the families will be unable to pay for heat or winter clothing, and they will have to find either a way back, or a way out.