Iraq - Since the influx of Syrian refugees into Iraq began on 15^th August, IOM has transported some 32,000 Syrian refugees from two Iraqi border crossings at Sahela and Peshkhabour to six different camps and two transit sites in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah governorates of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

This influx of Syrian refugees into Iraq is the biggest since the uprising in Syria began over two years ago. All borders between Syria and Iraq had been closed since May 2013, with the exception of Sahela. Yesterday (22/8) some 1,300 refugees crossed the border. Today the borders are closed.

The six camps include the Aarbad district camp, Gawer Gosik camp, Baharka temporary camp, Kawa camp, located in Sulimaniyah province, and community facilities including schools and mosques in Qushtapa and Harir in Erbil.

Since mid-August, IOM has made over 1,000 rotations to transport refugees from the border to camps and temporary transit sites. This makes an average of 140 trips per day.

An estimated 39,000 to 40,000 Syrian refugees have so far fled into Iraqi Kurdistan since the borders were opened on 15 August 2013.  The total number of the Syrian refugees in Iraq is now estimated to be 195,000.

IOM, in close cooperation with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities and UNHCR, is providing reception and transport services to refugees entering Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region through the Peshkhabour and Sahela border crossings.

Today, Friday 23 August, IOM, together with UNHCR, is starting to erect 200 tents in Basrima temporary camp in Harir in Erbil to accommodate some 1,000 refugees.

In addition, IOM is working with partners in various border emergency reception areas which lack shade and basic services. While partners are providing tents and canopies for shade and emergency medical assessment, IOM and UNHCR are responsible for distributing water to refugees in reception areas, as temperatures during the day reach highs of 38-40 degrees Celsius.

IOM teams are working into the early hours of the morning to transport all the refugees that crossed the border before its closure in the evening. While IOM operates a fleet of vehicles and buses to move people from the border, clearing the backlog of refugees who crossed the border during the day is a struggle.

Some refugees are transporting their belongings on donkeys or carts, but most are arriving on foot with only what they can carry.

The majority of people crossing are exhausted from lack of food and water, the heat and the distances they have had to travel to reach the border. Some of the families IOM has spoken to have spent as many as five days at the border.

Refugees told IOM staff that thousands more remain behind waiting to cross into Iraq. They said that conditions in the places that they are coming from - Aleppo, Hasskahes, Qamishli and Efrin -  have deteriorated quickly in the past few months as fighting has intensified, with shortages of food and a surge in the cost of basic commodities.

IOM’s transport assistance to Syrian refugees fleeing into Iraq is currently funded by the US Department of the State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. But as the influx of refugees grows, IOM Iraq is urgently seeking USD 10 million from other international donors to continue its operations.

For more information, please contact

Rex Alamban
IOM Iraq
Tel: + 962799061779
Email: ralamban@iom.int

or

Sanja Celebic-Lukovac
Tel: +962798892365
Email: scelebic@iom.int