River of refugees flee Syria for Iraq
A flood of 30,000 Syrian refugees have entered Kurdish Iraq in the past three days. It is the biggest single wave of refugees to leave Syria since the 2011 uprising started says the UN.
A “sudden and massive” influx of Syrians have crossed the border into northern Iraq in the last three days says the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
An estimated 30,000 refugees have entered into the Kurdistan areas of Iraq since Thursday, after Iraq opened its borders to the refugees.
The Syrians are fleeing the civil war in regions like Aleppo and an escalation of violence against Syria’s Kurdish minority, but the UN says that the reasons for the mass movement are not entirely clear.
The scale of the sudden influx has overwhelmed local refugee support, said charity Save the Children. The government in Iraqi Kurdistan has bussed refugees to nearby towns and the UN and other charities have provided water and supplies, but thousands are left at the border.
“UNHCR is witnessing a major exodus from Syria over the past few days unlike anything we have witnessed entering Iraq previously,” said Claire Bourgeois, UNHCR Representative in Iraq.
This is an unprecedented influx of refugees, and the main concern is that so many of them are stuck out in the open. Alan Paul
Save the Children said that thousands of people had been left stranded at the Iraqi border in need of water, shelter and food.
“This is an unprecedented influx of refugees, and the main concern is that so many of them are stuck out in the open at the border or in emergency reception areas with limited, if any, access to basic services,” said Alan Paul, of Save the Children.
The vast majority of the new arrivals are families -women, children and elderly – mainly from Aleppo, Efrin, Hassake and Qamishly. Some families told UNHCR they had relatives residing in northern Iraq, and some students travelling alone said that they had been studying in northern Iraq and were coming back after Eid.
Around 7,000 refugees have been taken to an emergency camp, according to Save the Children, but thousands are still waiting to be registered at the border, and the influx is showing no signs of slowing down.
Over 1.9m refugees have left Syria for neighbouring countries since the conflict started.
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