UNHCR welcomes $27.8m US contribution to support refugees in Kurdistan Region and Iraq

“We would like to also thank the Kurdistan Regional Government for its generosity.”
Syrian refugees collect blankets and basic aid items from UNHCR partner staff at Bardarash camp in Duhok, Iraq (Photo: UNHCR/Firas Al-Khateeb)
Syrian refugees collect blankets and basic aid items from UNHCR partner staff at Bardarash camp in Duhok, Iraq (Photo: UNHCR/Firas Al-Khateeb)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, thanked the United States for contributing $27.8m to support Syrian refugees and Iraqis displaced by ISIS in a press release on Sunday. 

There are still 1.2 million displaced Iraqis who have not been able to go home, the agency noted. Moreover, the Kurdistan Region still hosts around 300,000 refugees from Syrian Kurdistan.

UNHCR said the US contribution allows them to help refugees and displaced Iraqis in local communities and public services. 

Moreover, they said they would also use the contributions to rehabilitate schools, health care centers, and water and electricity networks.

In the public statement, UNHCR’s Representative in Iraq, Jean Nicolas Beuze, said that they “need to continue working with the authorities in Baghdad and KRI (Kurdistan Region of Iraq) to strengthen communities’ resilience and self-reliance.” 

“The generous, flexible contribution of the US allows UNHCR to prioritize those most in need and to improve key public services in Iraq,” he added.

The Kurdistan Region is hosting about 260,000 Syrian refugees and more than 780,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).

While the Iraqi government ordered the shutdown of all IDP camps, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has refused to close camps on its soil. It continues to assist IDPs and Syrian refugees in partnership with international aid groups. 

“Most of the refugees and the IDPs are hosted in the Kurdistan Region, at least 95 percent of the refugees,” the UNHCR spokesperson in Iraq, Firas al-Khateeb, told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.

“We are grateful for this long-standing partnership with the United States. That always helps the work of UNHCR in critical times and based on our needs and the needs of the people.”

Moreover, the UNHCR spokesperson also thanked “the Kurdistan Regional Government for its generosity and the Kurdish people in Kurdistan of Iraq for receiving and allowing the refugees, the Syrian refugees, to thrive in their region.”

“We appreciate the efforts by the (KRG) government and the people to do it,” he said. “It has been great in hosting the Syrian refugees, allowing them to enter into schools and providing them with job opportunities.”