ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – For Syrian Kurds fleeing the civil war for Iraqi Kurdistan, the journey is filled with hardships and the path ringed with landmines and unexploded ordnance.
“There are minefields all across the border area between Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria,” said Zana Kaka, deputy program officer in Erbil for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a UK-based charity that works on demining worldwide.
So far, since the beginning of the Syrian civil war that began with an uprising in March 2011, some 250,000 mostly Syrian-Kurds have arrived in the Kurdistan Region, overwhelming authorities in the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.
A massive wave of nearly 50,000 refugees washed in just over a two-week period in August through the route to Shilikiya near the Peshkhabour river. The path cuts through two old minefields, said Kaka, whose organization is one of several working with the Kurdistan Region to clear millions of mines left from decades of conflict.
The mines were laid on both sides of the border in the 1980s to prevent Syrian Kurds from aiding Iraqi Kurdish Peshmarga against Saddam Hussein’s forces, and vice versa for Syrian Kurds opposing Damascus.
For decades the fields were used only by smugglers, and clearing them was not on MAG’s list of priorities. But that changed when tens of thousands of refugees began marching through.
“Our teams cleared a walking path and demarcated the area that is mined,” Kaka said. But he explained the work was stopped by Iraqi police because the land is part of the so-called “disputed territories,” claimed by both the Kurds and the central government in Baghdad. MAG was told it could not work there because the organization is not registered in Baghdad.
So far, the mines have caused no incidents, Kaka happily reported. That might be partly because of MAG’s information campaign, which includes a large warning sign and leaflets given out to smugglers and refugees.
Mines not only threaten refugees on the road, but in the camps as well.
The main refugee camp at Domiz is located where Saddam had built a town for many thousands of forcefully resettled Kurds, and nearby was a military base to keep an eye on the villagers.
MAG cleaned up hundreds of items of unexploded ordnance on sites where Domiz and other refugee camps were built.
Kaka explained that the area lay on the borderline of the Kurdish region and was shelled with cluster bombs during the 2003 war. There was unexploded ordnance scattered over a large area, he said.
A MAG plan to clear them has been hampered by the rapid growth of the Domiz Camp.
“We need a safe area of about 400 meters to make sure no one gets hurt. But in Domiz now we only have 200 meters left between the tents and the area we need to clean,” he said, explaining that at that distance an explosion could hurt residents.
To keep things as safe as possible, in Domiz special MAG teams visit families in their tents twice weekly to give out information and leaflets.
“Mine awareness now is part of the curriculum in Kurdistan schools,” Kaka explained. “But the Syrian refugees are new in the region, so they don’t know the dangers yet,” he said. “And the affected areas are larger than the camps, so they might walk into them.”
“Our phone numbers are on the leaflets,” Kaka explained. “In the new Arbat Camp they recently found an 80 mm mortal shell, which we cleared after they called us.”
MAG wants to educate teams of Syrian refugees so they can take over education in the camps. That knowledge is not only important for the Syrians during their stay in Kurdistan, he emphasized.
“When they return to Syria they are bound to find a lot of unexploded ammunition. Our information here can help them stay safe there, too.”
