Kurdistan Region appeals to the world for refugee aid at start of Syria Support Conference
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The autonomous Kurdistan Region has launched an appeal for the support of Syrian refugees, at a time when the autonomous region is suffering from a stifling financial crisis and the looming second wave of coronavirus.
Brussels, in cooperation with the United Nations, hosted a donors’ conference on Tuesday with the aim of raising roughly $10 billion for humanitarian aid in Syria to support refugees and host communities. The Kurdistan Region hosts about a quarter of a million Syrian refugees since the outbreak of the conflict in that country.
“On the occasion of the fifth #Brussels Conference on ‘Supporting the future of Syria and the region,’ I appeal to donor countries and the UN agencies to provide more support to Syrian refugees in Kurdistan,” Kurdistan Region Minister of Interior Reber Ahmed said on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
The fifth annual conference hosted by the European Union aims to raise $ 4.2 billion for people inside Syria and $ 5.8 billion for refugees and their hosts across the Middle East.
“The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is currently providing shelter to 240,000 Syrian refugees. Most of these are women and children. 40 percent of the refugees are being cared for in camps. The rest are being hosted within local communities,” Ahmed added.
About 24 million people need basic aid, including another four million over the past year, the highest number so far since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 2011 led to the outbreak of the bloody conflict.
The Region’s Minister of Interior pointed out that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “has adopted a rights-based approach to refugee support, ensuring that refugees have freedom of movement within Kurdistan, secure residency, work permits, and free access to healthcare, education and other social services.”
“But the burden this places on the KRG and on local host communities is considerable, at a time when Kurdistan is under severe economic constraints,” Ahmed explained, pointing out that the KRG currently spends about $147 million annually from its own budget in order to provide basic services to refugees and displaced people.
He said the additional support would not only relieve pressure on the Kurdistan Regional Government and local communities, but would also enable the region to provide more support to Syrian refugees, especially in education and health care, both of which are vital for their future when they return to their homes.
“The Syrian refugee crisis is an international challenge. We are doing our part to meet it. I urge those of you who can to help us to do so,” the minister said.
Fighting between the Syrian army and opposition fighters has largely subsided since a deal ended a year ago with a Russian-led bombing campaign that displaced more than a million people, but Russian airstrikes, along with Iranian and Syrian-backed groups, continue to target opposition positions.
Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly
