Iraqi Kurdistan: Syrian refugees challenges

Heavy rain and snow, unprecedented in the last 40 years, caused a sudden drop in temperature to eight degrees below zero in the past few weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. The sudden change led to the closure of schools and roads, and damage to Syrian refugee tent camps.

For many refugees displaced by ISIL from the 2014-2017 violence, severe cold, along with a lack of heating fuel, is a catastrophic event. Many still live under tents and in camps that are not at all suitable for such weather conditions.

Costs in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region are very high, even for citizens, with many refugees saying that the cash donations they sometimes receive from charities are hardly enough to buy fuel.

Many Syrian refugees, as well as Iraqi refugees, have lost their jobs due to quarantine and the severe economic downturn caused by the corona. Most of them work as day laborers in construction workshops or on agricultural farms, they are practically unemployed in the cold season.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners have been distributing winter cash assistance to vulnerable families since last November. According to the refugees themselves, the amount of this assistance cannot meet their needs in such circumstances. They urgently need fuel and at least livelihood to survive.

_{Source and Credit: RW, UNHCR, RUDAW}