The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said relief organizations in NINEVEH province and humanitarian workers have received threats after a series of harassment by influential local government there.
Threats include accusing them of "terrorism" and arresting them and preventing them from practicing their activities.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said that "The threat to aid workers and organizations will increase the risks they face.
They are at risk on a daily basis. It is unreasonable that the risks around them are increased and deliberately by people who should help them in their work".
A lawyer working in relief also said "Mid-September 2018 last received threats by two men of security in the Directorate of the nationality of Nineveh after the defense of children who the Iraqi government refuses to issue identity papers because they were born in the presence of ISIS organization and their parents were killed during the fighting or that some of them belonged to the organization urged".
He also said "They threatened that if they saw me again in court or the Chamber of Citizenship for the same reason, they will make a statement about me that I belong to an organization that advocates and arrests me with this charge. I have no choice but to defend these children, but at the same time there is no one to defend me if they decide to arrest me".
A member of the monitoring network at the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said that "He received several reports from activists in NINEWA province to help them as a result of the threats they received.
The sources of this threat are not known in most of the eight cases they received, but there are cases of security men and elements in the intelligence".
He also said that "Some politicians who do not want the existence of volunteer and relief teams incite the security services against them. Some of them accuse these young volunteers of belonging to foreign organizations to corrupt the youth or to establish activities that promote homosexuality.
A volunteer group of 13 volunteers said "The most threats we received when we were photographing the displacement camps in which ISIS families live and calling on the social media We received indirect threats from people who wrote to us on Facebook and then closed their pages and sometimes we received them from unknown phone numbers".
The group also said "These threats may not be serious, or they may be serious, but as a result, we are apprehensive and worried about the increasing threats we receive and other groups of volunteers. We will certainly not stop our work, but we have greatly facilitated the provision of aid, the removal of rubble and the removal of bodies from the streets".
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said "In December 2018 a group of volunteers who were helping the families to return to their homes and remove the rubble and bodies, received threats from local officials in NINEWA as a result of their efforts, and then accused them of undermining the government's reconstruction".
An activist told the observatory then said "The officials who threatened us had mechanisms to remove the rubble and worked to have these mechanisms contracted by the state or paid by the people to lift the rubble from their homes. But we were helping them free of charge, which bothered them".
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said that "Volunteer relief teams play positive roles in conflict areas and help thousands of families get rid of their problems. The teams have provided assistance to tens of thousands of families. It is not reasonable to receive threats because their work conflicts with influential political interests or security men who deal with temperament and racism".
Observatory said "The government of Mr. ADEL ABDUL MAHDI should thank these people rather than let them receive threats on their own. The work of the relief and volunteer teams, complementing the work of governments in times of crisis and that they have made a tremendous effort and must be appreciated".
