Speaking at a press conference alongside Darbaz Mohammed, Iraqi migration minister, the Kurdistan Region’s interior minister, Karim Sinjari, said that since “the operation has started, more than 55,000 refugees have come to the Kurdistan Region and been based in Hassan Sham and Khazir camps.”
Sinjari added that his government has done all it could to host the influx of displaced persons, in addition to the approximately 1.6 million Iraqi IDPs and Syrian refugees already living in the region, despite an ongoing economic crisis.
He said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has reached an accord with “the United Nations and the Iraqi government that they will cover the expense of tents and camps.”
The Iraqi migration minister, Mohammed, estimated that overall 80,000 civilians have fled the war-torn Mosul and the number is on the rise.
"Two to three thousand people are displaced every day and we from the migration ministry will do everything to help them.”
He praised the "good coordination" between Erbil and Baghdad as the KRG has positively responded in taking in the overwhelming number of Mosul refugees.
Detailing the services provided to the IDPs, Mohammed said they “shelter any person at refugee camps. We provide them with tents, heater and oil as well as food and other necessities.”
While civilians continue to flee Mosul, many families are returning home to areas that have been declared safe from ISIS and cleared of the debris of war, Mohammed said. “So far, 6,000 refugees have returned to their liberated areas.”
More than one million people are believed to have remained inside Mosul.
