With Daesh on the Ropes, Iraqis Return Home, But Where to?

Over the past year, Daesh has lost nearly half its "caliphate" in Iraq. Hopes of a better future have spurred hundreds of exiled Iraqis to return home. At the same time, experts warn that the fragile Iraqi state is approaching collapse and that today's Iraq is by no means a safe place.

Hopefulness has spurred exiled Iraqis to voluntarily return to their home country. Last year alone, the International Organization for Migration saw three times as many applications from returning Iraqis as before. Even among Iraqis in Sweden a desire to return home has become manifest.

The Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm reportedly receives applications from would-be returnees every day. At the same time, a large number of Iraqi asylum-seekers chose to withdraw their applications from the Migration board. During the first five months of the year, nearly 1,500 Iraqis withdrew their applications, which is twice as many as during the whole last year, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

Iraqis from across the country are flocking to the Iraqi center in Malmö for support and assistance. The center's project manager Muhammed Khorshid told Dagens Nyheter that for many the homesickness is stronger than the fear of being subjected to violence.

"Most have come here alone with a false impression of Sweden. The smugglers promised that they would quickly obtain a residence permit, which is not true," Khorshid said citing the long waiting time and bureaucratic obstacles.

In neighboring Finland, however, things have taken a more dismal turn, as Iraq has, together with Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, since May been counted as a safe area for civilians, despite constant terror attacks. After the past week of terror, over 20,000 Iraqis who came to Finland last year are left in trepidation over their future. Over 1,000 Iraqis have so far been flown to Baghdad by regular flights, organized by Finnish police, Dagens Nyheter reported.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has been desperately luring Iraqi exiles back with money, housing and jobs. The offer, however, is not universally appealing.

"I think it's simply inhumane to give us 30,000 kroner [roughly 3,500 USD] and ask us to go back to certain death. How dare you even suggest it? I still don't know if my family in Baghdad survived at all," Swedish-Iraqi author and Malmö resident Kodra Alhir said after Sunday's terrorist act.

Today, after 13 years of war, fear and terrorist violence permeate all social functions in Iraq.

"The Iraqi government is not strong enough to counterbalance the violence, besides it is questionable if it even exists. ‘Substate' sectarian groups have grasped at power," Joel Ahlberg, project manager for conflict work in Iraq at the Folke Bernadotte Academy, said.

Daesh's atrocities and the general lack of faith in tomorrow following the US-led conquest of Baghdad have forced millions of Iraqis to flee. Some 1.5 million Iraqis are believed to live in exile, whereas another 3.3 million are internally displaced people.

The recent spiral of violence during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan uncoiled as Daesh suffered bitter losses against the Iraqi coalition forces. Recently, the jihadists were pushed back from its citadels in western Iraq, as well as ousted from its former strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah. Owing to the field losses, Daesh lost about 40 percent of its territory, which earlier encompassed a third of Iraq, when the terrorist group was strongest in 2014.