26 refugee camps in the Kurdistan Region: Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Ali Abbas, in the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that there are 26 refugee camps in the Kurdistan Region.
“There are 16 camps in Duhok, six camps in Erbil, and four camps in Sulaimani,” Abbas added.
He also revealed that 36,000 refugees live in these camps. Most of them are from Sinjar in the Nineveh province, as well as Anbar, Salah al-Din, and Diyala provinces.
On Thursday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Interior, Rebar Ahmed, said the Iraqi government was not fulfilling its duty to help refugees.
The Interior Minister explained that 50% of the refugees in the Kurdistan Region live in Erbil province.
Minister Ahmed called on the international community to continue to support refugees in the Kurdistan Region. The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, he argued, treats refugees in the Kurdistan Region very irresponsibly.
The Iraqi minister of migration and displacement accused the KRG of using refugees and IDPs for political purposes, a charge the region’s officials vehemently oppose.
The Kurdistan Region hosted nearly 2.5 million Syrian refugees and Iraqi IDPs following the 2011 civil war and ISIS’s rise four years later.
The Kurdish government bears 70% of the total costs of supporting the refugee population in the Region, according to the KRG.