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BARDARASH CAMP, Kurdistan Region – More than 10,000 refugees have now crossed into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq fleeing the Turkish offensive in northeast Syria, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Many Syrian refugees have been moved to Bardarash camp in Duhok province, where local and international aid agencies are providing food and shelter.
“Many of our people and relatives are still there [in northeast Syria],” Aya Ibrahim, a mother of four, told Rudaw in the camp on Thursday. “We plead to countries and the United Nations to assist Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians. We are all one.”
Assisting the fresh influx of refugees is not an easy task, says Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative for Iraq.
“For now we have people coming in high numbers. We are cooperating, the UN family in Iraq is closely cooperating with the KRG authorities, in this case with the Duhok authorities, to make sure we can offer tents, food and certain facilities to the people arriving here. This is our first priority, for people to come in and to give them shelter,” she told Rudaw.
“Obviously, we are trying to look into possibilities for other camps and facilities. Not on our own, but together with authorities. But it is not easy, I can tell you.”
Aiyn Faiz, a mother displaced from Darbasiyah, says although life in a tent is miserable, she is grateful her family is safe.
“We fled from Rojava along with my four little children. We fled explosions and conflict. We have only this tent but we are grateful. There is no fear here,” she said.
The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), a local aid agency which supervises Bardarash camp, is expecting many more arrivals in the coming days and weeks, despite a shaky ceasefire agreement.
Botan Mohammed, a BCF aid worker, urged international organizations to extend assistance.
“We prepare hot food to give them three meals a day. We have provided heating oil. Whenever new groups of refugees arrive, we are here to give them [what they need],” he said.
Bardarash camp was established in 2014 to house people fleeing the Islamic State (ISIS) rampage across northern Iraq.
Some 180,000 people have been displaced across Syria’s north-east since Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring on October 9, according to the latest UN estimates. The majority of the displaced are women and children.
With reporting by Mahdi Faraj, translations by Zhelwan Z. Wali
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