ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —The Kurdistan Regional Government wants more cooperation from the international community and aid agencies to assist with 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and Syrian refugees.
"The presence of all these IDPs in the Kurdistan Region is a heavy burden on the shoulders of the region. That is why we have turned to the international community asking for assistance so that they help,” Falah Mustafa, the head of KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations, said at a press conference in Erbil on Tuesday.
KRG and UN delegations met prior to the press conference with the aim of helping and aiding Syrian refugees. Mustafa said the KRG needs $400 million to host Syrian refugees in 2018.
The head of KRG's foreign department added the policy of the KRG is for refugees to voluntarily return to their areas in a dignified manner; however, some basic conditions, like security still are required for them to return.
The Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and the Displaced, and Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi, have denied that IDPs are being forced to return, following a joint report in February by three of the largest international NGOs stating Iraqis face “coerced, forced, and blocked” returns ahead of elections in 2018.
The refugees in the Kurdistan Region cost the KRG $1.9 billion annually according to Mustafa, underscoring that cooperation between KRG, Iraq and international agencies is a must.
According to Mustafa, there are currently 1.4 million refugees in the Kurdistan Region. Rudaw has reported about thousands of people who had gone back to Mosul only to have returned to camps in the Kurdistan Region. Mustafa put this figure now at 4,000.
Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the acting UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, also spoke about the needs of the Kurdistan Region.
"Hundreds of thousands of displaced people still remain, particularly in the Kurdistan Region. Recognizing this, the humanitarian response plan to Iraq, focuses on returns as a significant component of the humanitarian response. In particular, the Kurdistan element to the humanitarian response plan for Iraq has identified more than 600,000 individuals who are in need of humanitarian assistance in the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Balakrishnan said $165 million has been allocated for the refugees, but reiterated the need for more help from the international community.
“Humanitarian response as well as recovery and reconciliation have to be seen as the two sides of a different coin,” Balakrishanan said.
Mustafa said rebuilding trust, reestablishing security, and stability are needed following the defeat of ISIS.
In the donor’s conference in Kuwait, about $30 billion was pledged to Iraq — just about a third of what Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was seeking to rebuild the war ravaged country. The Wall Street Journal reported ahead of the conference that the US-backed campaign to defeat ISIS resulted in $45.7 billion damage to houses, power plants, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
Since January 2014, 3.6 million Iraqis have returned, while 2.2 million people remain displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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