KRG ready for coordination, cooperation with UNHCR, Iraqi gov. for return of IDPs

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has expressed its readiness to coordinate with the Federal Government of Iraq and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for the return of displaced persons.

On Thursday, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani received in Erbil Head of the UNHCR for the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region, Amin Awad, and Bruno Gido, Head of Iraq’s UNHCR office.

Head of the UNHCR in the MENA region thanked the people and the government of the Kurdistan Region for receiving and arranging shelter for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees and providing them necessary assistance and services.

Awad highlighted the UNHCR’s plans for the return of IDPs to their areas of origin as well as ways to improve the living conditions for refugees residing in camps in the Region.

The KRG Prime Minister thanked the UNHCR for delivering assistance to the displaced and refugees and for their cooperation and coordination with the institutions in Kurdistan.

Barzani said the KRG is ready to cooperate and coordinate with the Iraqi government or the UNHCR to facilitate the return of IDPs to their homes only after their safety is guaranteed and stability restored in their areas.

Nearly four million Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, were displaced when the Islamic State emerged in northern Iraq in mid-2014. Most have returned home but are struggling to rebuild their lives.

Since the start of the civil war, approximately 250,000 Syrian refugees fled to the Kurdistan Region where they remain under the protection of the KRG.

Thirty-seven percent of them are residing in nine refugee camps in the provinces of Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaimani, with the rest hosted within local communities.

According to recent figures by the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC), the Kurdistan Region is still home to 1.4 million IDPs and refugees, with 97% of the Syrian refugees now in Iraq and 40% of internally displaced Iraqis in the region.

Since January 2018, over 10,000 IDPs arrived in the Kurdistan Region, mainly to Erbil, and have settled in camps, the Director General of the JCC, Hoshang Mohammed, said in a statement on Wednesday.  

Mohammed noted that the KRG continues to assist its partners to continue helping IDPs and refugees. He also urged UN agencies to keep supporting displaced people in the camps and those outside the camps.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany