Rojava refugees protest camp conditions outside UN office in Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dozens of refugees from northeast Syria (Rojava) housed in Erbil camps gathered in front of the United Nations office in the Kurdistan Region capital on Sunday, protesting the lack of services, job opportunities, and education.

The protesters, mainly from Erbil’s Kawergosk camp, claimed that the UN has in recent weeks decreased access to a number of essential services to the camps, including electricity, water, medical care, and cleaning services.

“We have a lot of problems. We have no water, no electricity, trash [are piling up], there are many illnesses in the camps but no clinics, there are no places for us in the schools, the people in the camps do not get employed,” Nafia Sheikho, one of the protesters, told Rudaw’s Farhad Dolamari on Sunday.

One of the main demands echoed by protesters was “resettlement” in a third country, as they decry their lack of asylum status and their inability to pursue most jobs and adequate education because of their non-citizenship.

“Since 2019, most of the organizations inside the camp withdrew. We have been refugees for around 10 years, and our legal issues increase by the day,” said Ayaz Dara, one of the protesters, adding “we do not want temporary solutions. In any other country, if you are a refugee for 10 years, you have the right to ask for asylum… If the UNCHR cannot grant us asylum, we ask for resettlement in a third country.”

The Kurdistan Region houses over 240,000 refugees from Syria, who immigrated to the Region following the escalation of the civil war in Syria in 2011. Kawergosk camp currently houses over 8000 Syrian refugees.

In addition to Kawergosk, there are three other Syrian refugee camps in Erbil, including Darashakran Camp, Qushtapa Camp, and Basirma Camp.