Iraqi Kurdistan Struggles to Meet Needs of Displaced Syrian Kurds
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is struggling with the number of displaced Syrian Kurds flowing into the region, writes Abdel Hamid Zebari.
When popular protests erupted in Syria, a mass influx to the Kurdistan region of Iraq began, particularly from the Kurdish majority areas in Syria. The flow of people reached numbers that exceeded the expectation of the Kurdish administration, which started to look for ways to provide refugees with shelter and assistance.
Since March 15, 2011, Syria has experienced popular protests that started with demands for democratic reform, and ended with demands to bring down Bashar al-Assad’s regime. These protests were met with bloody violence by the Syrian security forces and “thugs,” which has resulted in the death of more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations High Commisioner for Human Rights. Moreover, tens of thousands of protesters are currently being detained in Syrian prisons, according to the SOHR. While there are hundreds of thousands of refugees, displaced and missing persons, the Syrian authorities accuse terrorist groups of being behind the violence.
The Kurdish-majority Syrian areas have not witnessed military operations between protesters and regime forces, and have stayed away from the military conflict. Yet, they have been directly affected by the difficult economic situation in the country as a result of the deteriorating security situation.
The latest statistics announced by the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq shows that the number of displaced has reached 74,000 in the region, while Kurdistan was preparing to receive at least a quarter of that number with the start of the conflict.
