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Gallery|ISIL/ISIS

Displaced Iraqis wait and hope for fighting to end

Most of the 8,500 residents of the Laylan camp south of Kirkuk fled after ISIL tore through their country.

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Laylan camp, located 20km south of Kirkuk, was built by UNHCR and the municipality of Kirkuk with around 1,500 tents. Approximately 8,500 people live in the camp. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
By Hawre Khalid
Published On 14 Apr 201514 Apr 2015
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Laylan refugee camp, Iraq – In the Laylan camp for displaced Iraqis, 20km south of Kirkuk, residents are waiting to see how the battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) will unfold. Most of the 8,500 residents fled fighting between ISIL members, local militias and government forces last year after ISIL tore through Iraq.

By a cluster of tents, teenagers gather to watch a barber carefully razor marine cuts in his makeshift shop; no-one here wants to be mistaken for an ISIL member.

Across the camp in another tent, the mood is sombre. Abdullah Hazbar, a camp resident, lays out the ID cards that belonged to his children, who he says were killed in an aerial bombardment. “We put a white flag on our convoy of cars to show we are civilians,” he says dejectedly, noting the family was also later denied entry to the relative safety of Kurdistan for treatment.

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Abdullah Hazbar, seen from outside his tent, was wounded in an aerial bombardment when he left his village with his family. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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A young displaced person tries to fix the electricity in the camp. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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A barber cuts hair inside his tent at the camp. Many residents get marine cuts, determined not to be mistaken for ISIL fighters. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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Ali Ahmad, Noor Zuher and Layla Mahmud sit inside their tent. They lost nine members of their family during the war. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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Omer helps his father distribute kerosene to camp residents. His father is originally from Sudan, but came to Iraq as a refugee 14 years ago. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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A fast-food restaurant worker prepares a salad at the camp. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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Mahmud Hazbar was wounded in a bombing when he and his family were en route to Qratapa, after leaving their village. He lost three brothers and one sister. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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A woman hangs a blanket out to dry on a sunny day at the camp. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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A young Iraqi boy spends time inside a tea shop at Laylan camp. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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Omer plays football with his friends on the camp grounds. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]
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Adam Abubakir and his youngest daughter, two-year-old Asma, stand inside their tent. Abubakir, a 60-year-old Sudanese man, is married with five children. [Hawre Khalid/Metrography/Al Jazeera]


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