June 20 of every year marks the World Refugee Day to raise awareness of the situation of refugees around the world. Each year the United Nation Refugee High Commissioner for Refugees, NGOs and countries around world host events on this occasion in order to advocate for the millions of refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who have been forced to flee their areas due to conflict and persecution.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) humanitarian rights based policy is to provide security, basic services including education, and job opportunity to all IDPs and refugees without discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation.
According to the latest data of the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC), the Kurdistan Region currently hosts more than 1.5 million of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and refugees, numbering (1,124,423 IDPs) and 97 percent of Syrian refugees numbering (273,543 persons) other refugees include 20,575 from Turkey, 13,162 from Iran, and 756 Palestinians.
On this occasion, the JCC calls on the international community, Iraqi government and NGOs to support the KRG in its efforts to continue the provision of services and opportunities, health care, education and livelihood refugees and IDPs currently residing inside and outside of the camps in the Kurdistan Region.
Since the defeat of ISIS, the number of international NGOs, especially those servicing in camps, have decreased, which has caused drop in services. In addition, lack of funding has been forcing the humanitarian partners in the Kurdistan Region to reduce the scale and quality for their programs for the IDPs and refugees.
