Refugees in Iraq suffer aid shortage amid Ukraine war

ERBIL, Iraq (AA) – The Ukraine war is leaving its impact on refugees in northern Iraq amid a shortage of aid to their camps.

Refugees in the cities of Erbil and Duhok complain that aid is being diverted to Ukraine, leaving them struggling to find enough food.

Abide Salih Omar, who lives Erbil's Gevrgosk camp, said he and other refugees suffer food shortages and their camps are infested by accumulated garbage.

"Sometimes we are left without water for three and four days during the summer heat,” she told Anadolu Agency. “Life is unbearable in this hot weather.”

The Syrian national criticized the United Nations for not providing sufficient help to the refugees in Iraq. “They send our children to study outside the camps. We want their schools to be in the camp,” she said.

Omar lamented that she and her family are unable to return to Syria due to the ongoing civil war there.

"How can I take care of myself and my daughter if the United Nations does not help. We have not been helped since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Aid to refugees must not be cut."

Abdulkerim Muhammed Kasem, who has been living in Gevrgosk camp for nine years, said garbage is piling up everywhere in the camp.

"The United Nations does not help us anymore,” he said. “With the Ukraine war, humanitarian aid has been directed there. We ask them not to ignore us and to provide the aid they give to the Ukrainian refugees to others (as well).”

Insufficient help
Bahar Dawud Ilyas from Sinjar, who lives in Sarya camp in Duhok, said he came to the area after the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group was cleared out of Iraq.

"At first, there was a lot of materials and assistance from NGOs, but the situation changed now,” he said, criticizing the Iraqi government for not providing enough help to refugees.

“Iraq is a country. It must find a solution for the refugees," Ilyas said.

Ilyas Bekir, who lives in Sharya camp, said: "There was a charity organization that helped every family before, but it did not provide any assistance for a month."

Bekir pointed out that the Iraqi government has not provided any assistance to refugees so far, noting that only the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and the city of Duhok have hosted them.

Decreased aid
Musa Ahmed, chairman of the Barzani Relief Foundation, said the situation in the refugee camps has greatly deteriorated.

"We warned the KRG, the interior ministry, the Iraqi government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that international aid has decreased and that the programs of aid organizations are no longer available in most of the camps,” he said.

Ahmed warned that if the aid flow does not continue, the situation in the refugee camps will worsen.
"We demand that international aid organizations and the UN do not ignore the refugee camps here,” he added.

For his part, Dayan Jafar, a KRG official responsible for crisis response in northern Iraq, called for organizing a conference in Erbil to be attended by aid organizations to discuss how to ease the suffering of refugees.

"With the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, aid organizations went to Ukraine," Jafer lamented.

Firas al-Khateeb, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Iraq, said their work in the region is priority-based.

"We need to diversify our funding sources and work with other partners so we can give more support to refugees," he said.

"Donors tend to help in new crises and conflicts as well,” al-Khateeb said. "Apart from Ukraine, there are many other situations in the world and other places that need donors' attention. We all need to work together. We need more support for the displaced population."

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat