Two new camps for displaced Iraqis open in Baghdad

The UN's refugee agency has opened two new camps in Baghdad province to shelter 3,500 Iraqis fleeing fighting in Anbar province due to fighting.

The UNHCR announced the opening of the camps on 23 September in coordination with its partners and local authorities.

"UNHCR, the authorities and partners are working hard to ensure that the shelter needs of internally displaced Iraqis are being met and to relieve the pressure on the local community", said Bruno Geddo, UNHCR's representative in Iraq.

"While the majority of those who have been forcibly displaced would prefer to return home, a secure shelter will provide them with protection and a sense of dignity until it is safe for them to do so," he added.

Sadr Yusufiya camp opened yesterday and will accommodate around 2,000 people in 325 tents. It is located six kilometres from Bzeibiz bridge, which is the main access point between Baghdad and Anbar provinces.

Scout camp opened on 16 September and is located in Baghdad's Ghzaliya neighbourhood. It will shelter around 1,500 Iraqis in 250 tents.

UNHCR said the tents in both camps are connected to electricity and residents will receive essential household items.

One or the residents of Scott camp is Naima, 66, who moved in last week. She fled the fighting in Ramadi, Anbar's capital with her son, his wife, and their baby.

"It's a big relief," she said. "We'd been living in an unfinished building ever since we arrived. Although the host community has been generous, providing us with cash, food and household items, it feels good to have a space that is ours."

Iraq has been ravaged by violence since the Islamic State group first entered Anbar in late 2013 amid fierce clashes with Iraqi security forces that sent civilians fleeing from their homes.

The Sunni militant group then waged a lightening advance across northern Iraq last June, often giving non-Sunni Muslims in territories they captured an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious tax or die.

Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities opted to run for their lives, including Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims.