Iraq: $4 billion a year in aid needed to manage refugees
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq says it needs $4 billion a year in overseas aid to cope with its growing number of refugees, the country’s Ministry of Migration announced.
“Without United Nations assistance it will be increasingly difficult to meet the basic needs of the refugees in Iraq,” said a statement Saturday by the ministry.
It added that the number of Internally Displaced People (IDP) and refugees from Syria has passed three million, with more than 46 percent now housed in camps and areas controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The remaining 54 percent are in Baghdad and Iraq’s southern areas, it added.
The UN announced last month it had shut down its health centers across Iraq due to lack of funding for its 184 frontline health services in the country. It said the decision would affect 80 percent of the general health programs supported by humanitarian partners.
UN officials in Iraq said the world body’s humanitarian partners in the country urgently needed $498 million to provide their critical services for the reminder of the year.
According to officials in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan Region, more than 1.3 million refugees have entered Kurdish territories, many of them from neighboring Syria.
On Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called on the European Union to give Syria’s neighbors, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, $3.4 billion in financial aid to end the mass migration to Europe.
Thousands of refugees, mainly from Syria, have crossed Hungary on their way to the West in hopes of asylum.
With over three million refugees in its camps, Turkey says it has spent nearly $6 billion since the start of the Syrian war to cope with daily influx.
Heavily affected by the drop in global oil prices, Iraq has struggled to offset budget deficits by reducing government expenses and imposing taxes on things like cars and electronics.
The Kurdistan Region has also been largely affected by the cuts and has tried to balance its budget through increased oil exports to neighboring Turkey.
Rudaw
