ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —The financial burden of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the Kurdistan Region costs the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) $1.5 billion a year, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Wednesday.
He urged the international community to help "alleviate the burden" on the KRG, which has increased since the Turkish offensive in Northern Syria began on October 9.
"Currently we are hosting about 1.5 million IDPs and refugees. So far I believe somewhere around 16,000 people have crossed the [Syrian] border and are settled in the camps," PM Barzani said during the Middle East Peace and Security Forum organized by the American University of Duhok.
Two camps on the Syrian border have been re-opened following the Turkish incursion in the Kurdish enclave of Rojava.
Turkey, along with its Syrian proxy forces, began Operation Peace Spring in a bid to create a 'safe zone' free of the US-backed, Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG), considered by Ankara to be linked to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). The latter is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey and various other countries, including many European states.
The safe zone is to be resettled with 3,000,000 Syrian refugees, which Kurdish leaders say amounts to forced demographic change in the mixed Kurdish, Arab and Christian area.
The Kurdistan Region is expecting to receive more than 250,000 refugees from northern Syria if the conflict continues.
Barzani considers refugees and IDPs a "huge responsibility and a huge burden" on the KRG's shoulders given the government’s limited resources.
He cited a lack of assistance from the Iraqi government and the international community as the reason for the KRG’s inability to “alleviate the burden” of the ongoing influx.
"We are calling on the international community to help us, to first help us take care of the refugees that are in Kurdistan. But also help us to help them return to where they came from.
“That will not happen if they are not engaged in reconstructing and providing the services that they need," he added.
He added that the reconstruction of war-torn areas is the responsibility of both the Iraqi federal government and those of countries from which the refugees have fled, but little help has been received so far.
"We have been taking care of refugees for many years and we were hoping that the federal government of Iraq and the international community would come to the assistance of the KRG,"Barzani said.
The PM said the situation will further deteriorate if a swift solution is not provided.
"This will continue unless there are solutions and ways to help these people return to their original homes. They will not go home if there is no security. They will not go home if they do not have a safe place to live in. They will not go home if they do not have access to basic services, no schools, no hospitals, no jobs, no salaries."
The Islamic State (ISIS) is also a source of further displacement, according to the Prime Minister.
PM Barzani described the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a "partial defeat” and said that many who had returned to their homes elsewhere have now been pushed back into the KRI due to ISIS activity.
"Kurdistan is a much safer place. It respects and protects people who are fleeing from the threat of terror."
The Prime Minister visited camps in recent weeks, telling arrivals that that the KRI is "their home."
'We welcome you with open arms," he told the new arrivals from Rojava.
