ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Emirates Red Crescent handed over to the Kurdish authorities on Saturday the keys to a new camp the organization has built for thousands of Iraqi refugees who have taken shelter in the Kurdistan Region.
“We have come here to stand by our Kurdish brothers especially in the midst of the economic and humanitarian crisis they face,” Muhammad al-Falahi, head of the Emirates Red Crescent told Rudaw.
The Dibaga Camp near Makhmour was built by the Emirates Red Crescent at the cost of US$10 million and it consists of 1,000 housing units.
The Kurdish authorities hope to house in the new camp many Iraqi refugees mostly from Mosul and the Tigris River who fled to the Kurdistan Region last year after Islamic State (ISIS) militants overran their province.
“Most of the people who have taken refuge here their own areas are under bombardment and war,” Erbil governor Nawzad Hadi told Rudaw as he stood in front of a newly built home inside the camp. “We are going to gather them all in this camp so that they can be helped better.”
According to local authorities in Erbil more than 1.8 million are sheltered in the Kurdistan Region since last year, most of them from Mosul, Ramadi and Tikrit as well as many Kurds from Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).
The Red Crescent’s al-Falahi said that the new camp is for all refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) regardless of their religious or ethnic background.
“Discrimination against different sects is not part of our culture,” al-Falahi said. “We are talking about humans and their needs.”
The new Dibaga Camp adds to the list of 32 refugee camps in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok, Erbil and Sulaimani provinces.
According to government officials the Emirates Red Crescent is planning to build a second camp in the Bahrka district north of Erbil in the coming months.
