ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Almost 2,000 refugees from Kobane have arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan, abandoning makeshift camps on the Turkish border after Islamic State (ISIS) militants drove them out of their homes. “All things considered, they are OK,” says Yousef Mahmoud, the Kurdistan region spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “It is tough for any new arrivals, a certain level of unhappiness and disorientation is natural when one is forced to flee to a neighboring country.” According to UNHCR, 459 individuals are on their way to Kawargosk Syrian refugee camp outside of Erbil, and over 1,400 have arrived in other camps further south near Sulaimani. Kawargosk is full at the moment, but the UN is scrambling to erect new tents. While the present number of refugees is currently manageable, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials have warned that ISIS attacks in Kurdish Syria may trigger a fourth wave of refugees into the tiny region, already overwhelmed by its humanitarian obligations in the midst of a war and budget crisis. During the course of the Syrian civil war, 220,000 Syrian refugees have entered into semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan—the vast majority arriving after massacres of ethnic Kurds in the summer of 2013. Two subsequent waves of internally displaced Iraqis flooded across its borders following ISIS offensives in Mosul and Shingal, bringing the total number of refugees and Iraqis in Kurdistan to 1.4 million. KRG President Massoud Barzani announced he would open his borders to Syrian refugees earlier this week. UNHCR teams are waiting for refugees at Ibrahim Khalil, the border crossing between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region. The KRG provides the refugees food, water, and transportation to camps, with assistance from the International Organization for Migration. Most of the approximately 200,000 residents of Kobane and its environs who escaped to Turkey have been reluctant to move into camps far from home, but humanitarian agencies are bracing themselves for the numbers to increase as the siege of Kobane drags on.
