WUNRN
IRAQ – COMPOUNDED CRISIS FOR
WOMEN – VIOLENCE HAS DISPLACED 1.2 MILLION IRAQI’s – ADD SYRIAN REFUGEES –
ESCALATING MILITANT CONFLICTS – CHALLENGES OF AID DISTRIBUTION & SUPPLIES –
FOOD & WATER SECURITY?? – CONFUSION & DESPERATION FOR IRAQI WOMEN &
CHILDREN
By
Louise Redvers
Samira
Said, 27, fled Tikrit with her 20-day-old baby. - Photo: Louise Redvers/IRIN
One day
after they arrived, IDPs in Baharka camp picked up and left - Photo: Louise Redvers/IRIN
ERBIL,
25 June 2014 (IRIN) - As fighting grows between Islamist insurgents and
government forces in
In Erbil, capital of the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, hotel lobbies
are cluttered with families, some sleeping as many as 10 to a room, while those
without the luxury of savings are sleeping rough in parks and unfinished
buildings or sheltering in mosques and churches.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), working with aid agencies, has set up
several tented camps close to the checkpoints along the border between
Kurdistan and the rest of
The confusion about where and how to settle people was reflected last week in a
confrontation, witnessed by IRIN, between the Kurdish security services, the
Aysaish, and a gathering of around 100 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from
the city of Tikrit in Salaheddin Province. The group, all loosely part of one
family, had been sleeping in parks or their cars at sites around
The Baharka camp, in a remote location amid rolling fields and next to an old
agricultural facility, was initially created in 2013 to host Syrian refugees.
Earlier this year, it was revived to support displaced people fleeing fighting
in
The group from Tikrit also refused to stay. They said they would rather go back
home to danger than settle there, so they picked up the mattresses, blankets
and other non-food-items that had been dropped off there by various NGOs and UN
agencies one day earlier - and left.
The incident is believed to be isolated and was put down to a misunderstanding,
but it highlights the growing tensions around the management of IDPs.
Layers of crisis
According to statistics compiled jointly by the UN and
Thirteen out of
After ISIS and other militants took control of
“This crisis is so worrying because it’s so fast moving,” said Sheri
Ritsema-Anderson, a humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) based in
Already, KRG was hosting more than 220,000 Syrian refugees.
“You have the existing layer, the refugee layer and now this displacement,”
Ritsema-Anderson said. “There are multiple layers of IDPs here in
In an open-fronted, half-built hotel building in the shadow of
Wires hang down from exposed grey brick walls and diesel fumes from a generator
on the pavement outside fill the air in temperatures of around 40 degrees
Celsius.
Downstairs in a low-ceiling basement, veiled women huddle in a dark corner. At
least two are pregnant, and several clutch babies and toddlers who squirm
uncomfortably in the heat, their eyes reddened from the dust. They have barely
left this room in days, relying on passers-by for food and water.
The group, totalling 45, said they fled Tikrit the week before, when
“We left everything behind, we just got in the car and drove,” explained Abu
Waleed*, who presented himself as a spokesman. “We had to leave. They were
attacking civilians and bombs were falling on houses around us. (Read Abu Waleed’s full story)
“But now that we are here, we have nothing. Look what we are living in! And
even though it is not safe, I think we will have to go back as we cannot stay
here in these conditions for much longer.”
Parachute aid
UN agencies and NGOs are delivering large volumes of food parcels, tents,
blankets and mattresses to people across Kurdistan and inside some parts of
However, the speed and scale of displacement has tested logistics and
mobilization. According to several people IRIN spoke to, duplicated distributions
and a lack of coordination have hampered the effort.
For instance, Khazair, the main camp on the border between Erbil and
One European NGO worker, who has been based in
Last week, several dozen UN officials were relocated to Erbil from
“So many people have parachuted in in recent weeks. It’s creating confusion and
it’s not helpful,” the aid worker said. “We’ve had duplications in
distributions while some areas are not being reached at all. I don’t think as a
humanitarian community we have been as effective as we should or could have
been.”
Ambiguous status
Unlike Syrian refugees, who are registered on a central database and allowed to
work, the legal status of newly arriving IDPs is less clear-cut, even though
they are Iraqi citizens.
KRG manages its border with the rest of
Without a Kurdish sponsor or other similar security clearance, access is not
always granted. Those that are given access are issued either tourist visas or
temporary residency passes.
These can last 7-20 days, and there are no fixed rules on how or where these
can be renewed - with aid workers urging for more clarity.
“They are expected to go back to the border point where they crossed, but due
to limited resources and other hardships, many families cannot afford to make
this trip,” said Jahangir Durrani, a senior protection officer with the UN
Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
One aid source told IRIN that a number of IDPs who travelled back to
checkpoints have not been able to renew their permits and have been sent across
the border out of Kurdistan - back to areas where fighting is still taking
place.
Humanitarian access to some parts of
“So many people have parachuted in in recent weeks. It’s
creating confusion and it’s not helpful. We’ve had duplications in
distributions while some areas are not being reached at all. I don’t think as a
humanitarian community we have been as effective as we should or could have
been.”
With
such a good security record compared to the rest of
“There’s been a definite tightening of access by the KRG,” a UN employee said,
asking to remain anonymous. “It’s being floated that as many as 70 percent of
people who came into Kurdistan in the past few weeks have gone back because
they can’t afford to be here any more, but truly we don’t know the real
numbers.”
The UN staffer added: “There is an attitude developing among the authorities
that because some people have gone back, it must be safe, and this is a concern
because this attitude could lead to people in need being blocked from
entering.”
Dindar Zebari, the deputy head of KRG’s Department for Foreign Relations (DFR),
who is leading the IDP response for the government, said it was up to
“With the large number of IDPs, there are challenges ahead of us and it’s quite
difficult to decide right now. It has to be in line with security measures in
place and we have to decide what is the best practice. Frankly, I don’t know,”
he told IRIN during an interview at his office in
No one really knows exactly how many people have been displaced since ISIS
started its surge into the northern city of
In the absence of a formal registration database, UN agencies have created an online mapping tool to try to track where families are
settling and profile their protection needs in order to help target the response
more effectively.
Meetings were due to be held this week to analyse a possible registration
system for the IDPs and seek clarity on permit renewals.
Show me the money
Another challenge for KRG is funding. Spending is frozen until the 2014
“This is a big problem for us,” sighed Zebari. “We have had very, very little
support from the Federal Government even though these people are Iraqi
citizens.”
The deputy minister added: “We have not been able to pay public salaries in
Donor funding for
In March, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) launched an appeal for US$103million
to support those displaced from Anbar, but after three months had raised barely
10 percent, with officials warning that programmes were at risk if more money could not be raised soon. This week, the
appeal was increased to $312 million to reflect the escalating situation
countrywide and the growing caseload of IDPs.
Although ISIS (and subsequent ISF retaliation) was the trigger for the mass
exodus from the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in January, the jihadi outfit’s
advance across central Iraq this month has received significantly more media
attention than its activity in Anbar.
OCHA’s Ritsema-Anderson said she hoped the higher profile would generate more
donor interest and help secure more cash for the response.
“If we don’t get more funds rapidly, we are not going to be able to keep pace
with the needs and that then compounds the situation,” she said. “We need to
get basic systems in place, and get all the foundations strong so we are not
just left firefighting.”