Politics

Syrian refugees in Kurdistan Region require winter necessities: Duhok governor

The governor of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province on Tuesday called on the United Nations, local, and international organizations to provide refugees with the necessary aid as winter approaches.

Mustafa Shilani 2019/10/30 09:09

kurdistan Kurdistan Syria Refugees

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The governor of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province on Tuesday called on the United Nations, local, and international organizations to provide refugees with the necessary aid as winter approaches.

Governor Farhad Atrushi announced during a press conference that over 12,000 Syrian refugees had arrived at camps within the Duhok governorate since the start of the Turkish military offensive in northeastern Syria in early October.

“They are settling in the Bardarash and Gawilan refugee camps,” Atrushi told reporters on Tuesday.

The governor also called on the UN and other humanitarian organizations to assist the autonomous Kurdish region in providing the refugees with winter necessities.

Meanwhile, Rawaj Haji, head of the media and research department at the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), said refugees at the Kurdistan Region camps need supplies to help cope with the winter months.

“There are 800 refugee families at both the Bardarsh and Gawilan camps who need kerosene, so they can use portable cooking stoves distributed to them,” Haji told Kurdistan 24.

“It is both the government and UNHCR’s responsibility to provide the much-needed kerosene for the refugees,” he added.

The Bardarash camp was initially built to handle displacements from Mosul following the launch of a military operation against the so-called Islamic State. The facility requires specific maintenance, especially the repair of security fences around the camp and water and sewage lines, Haji stated.

“The security fence is worn down and unable to keep any external threats out, such as wild animals,” he told Kurdistan 24. “We are in continuous coordination with humanitarian organizations to fill the refugees’ needs.”

BCF is one of the most active humanitarian NGOs in Kurdistan that often provides a substantial amount of aid to internally displaced persons and refugees.

Over the past few years, the Kurdistan Region has been home to 1.8 million IDPs and refugees who fled from Syria and other parts of Iraq due to the threats of the Islamic State. Nearly four million Iraqis were displaced when the Islamic State emerged in northern Iraq in mid-2014.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany