Politics

UN: Iraq refugee efforts to transition from crisis to longterm planning

An official from the UNHCR, the United Nation's refugee agency, has announced that the organization is shifting its focus from emergency response to longer-term planning for refugees and displaced Iraqis.

John J. Catherine 2018/11/23 16:32

middle east Iraq UN UNHCR Refugees IDPs Kurdistan Mosul

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An official from the UNHCR, the United Nation's refugee agency, has announced that the organization is shifting its focus from emergency response to longer-term planning for refugees and displaced Iraqis.

The comments came at the end of a three-day visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T. Clements, in which she met with senior Iraqi and Kurdish ministers in Baghdad and Erbil. According to a statement released on Thursday, she also visited recovering neighborhoods and camps for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees on her trip.

“Yesterday in the Old City of Mosul, we saw the extent of the devastation. There wasn’t a building untouched by the conflict,” said Clements in the statement, referring to the destruction caused by the rise of and war against, the Islamic State (IS). “The task ahead for the Iraqi people is immense, but the will to move forward is clear."

Rubble in the largely destroyed western side of Mosul. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Daniel W. Smith)

"The families we met in Mosul and in camps for displaced people and refugees are looking to the future, and the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities want to support them," she continued. "UNHCR and the many partners supporting the humanitarian response here are committed to standing with the Iraqi people through this time of transition and towards a brighter future.”

The UNHCR says that, for the quarter of a million Syrian refugees seeking protection in the Kurdistan Region, UN agencies are working with government authorities to take a progressive approach to find "real and meaningful solutions to displacement."

In close collaboration with the Kurdish authorities and partner agencies, "UNHCR is implementing a strategy to ensure Syrian refugees achieve self-sufficiency and access their legal, social and economic rights."

The most recent UNHCR figures published about Iraq out the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) displaced since January 2014 at 2.09 million and 249,641 Iraqi refugees currently hosted in regional countries.