Aid workers: more air drops needed in Iraq for refugees in remote places

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As an icy winter weather sweeps across the Kurdistan Region, anxious aid workers say more urgent airlifts of supplies are desperately needed for refugees trapped in unreachable terrains.

“We have knowledge of about 1,000 families who still remain on Mount Shingal and need immediate airlift supplies, including tents,” Darbaz Muhammad, Iraq’s minister of migration, told Rudaw.  

Muhammad said because of security reasons the only way to send the supplies is through airdrops and at present the Iraqi government does not have the resources to manage any aerial missions.

“The refugees are not located in one place. They move around in a vast area and that has made it very difficult to reach them with the supplies,” Muhammad said.

“We have prepared a great number of tents, but we don’t know how to get them to the refugees on Shingal Mountain,” said an aid worker at the Barzani Charity Organization. He said they had asked both the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi authorities for help in sending the supplies.  

The Iraqi government has allocated $800 million for the refugee crisis in Iraq and has vowed to support the KRG with its more than 2 million refugees from Syria and inside Iraq. In addition, more than 23,000 temporary homes have been built in Dohuk and Erbil to accommodate the wave of displaced families.

“We have also given each family 1 million Iraqi dinars (about $800) to buy their urgent needs and so far 350,000 families have received the amount. We have also created many temporary homes, which have accommodated thousands of families,” said Muhammad, who praised the role of the UNHCR for its efforts to help refugees.

Muhammad said the international community has so far given the Iraqi government nearly $500 million to tackle the mass refugee crises.