Refugee arrivals amid Turkish offensive in northern Syria exceeds 18,000: KRG
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The number of Syrian Kurdish refugees who have fled their homes to the Kurdistan Region since the start of Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria has exceeded 18,000, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) said on Sunday.
The JCC announced the update in a post on its official Twitter page, where it revealed that 33 more refugees from Syria arrived in the autonomous Kurdish region through the Sehela border crossing on Sunday.
The total number of Syrian Kurdish refugees is now 18,016. That number is in addition to the 226,000 Syrian refugees who were already living in the Kurdistan Region.
#Update: 8 December;
— JCC_KRG (@JccKrg) December 8, 2019
Syrian Refugee arrivals;
33 refugees arrived through Sehela.
Total arrivals:
18,016 refugees,#KRG MoI-JCC pic.twitter.com/uyd28jUmUO
Only 350 Syrian refugees, about 70 families, have left the Kurdistan Region voluntarily, JCC Director General Hoshang Mohammed told Kurdistan 24 last week.
Read More: 350 Syrian Kurdish refugees return to Syria: KRG official
The current camps in the Kurdistan Region were built as a rapid response to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugee crisis emanating from the rise of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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. Nearly four million Iraqis were displaced when the terror group emerged in northern Iraq in mid-2014.
The latest arrivals of refugees are being accommodated at the Bardarash and Gawilan camps in Duhok province.