Najaf’s displaced struggle to survive

In the midst of a mass of crowded bodies and hands Intisar Yaseen struggled to pull out a sponge mattress. Beside her another person clung ferociously to two bed sheets.

Intisar, who lost six members of her family during the conflict of recent years, is one of hundreds of people who gather in al-Salam neighbourhood in Najaf city hoping to receive assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The aid is distributed, under the supervision of the Department of Immigration and Displacement, to displaced people from Baghdad and elsewhere across the country now living in Najaf.