Number of Syrian Refugees Mounts in Kurdistan

[Aslan]

The number of the Syrian refugees who has thus far flooded to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq jumped to 133, 875 people. An official says the Domiz Camp, which sits about 60 kilometers from the Syrian border amidst an imposing mountain landscape, is located in the province of Duhok. The number is increasing day after the day.

According to Salim Saeed, head of Press Department of the Camp, says that the camp is not built to accommodate that large number of refugees. ?So around 28,000 of them left the camp and now live in the cities across the Kurdistan Region,? he said.

Overcrowding and poor living conditions put residents of the camp at high risk of ? and vulnerability to ? communicable diseases, according to the humanitarian international organizations.

Saeed also added that around 400 new refugees come to the camp every day while there is no place for further accommodating people.
Stéphane Reynier, emergency coordinator for the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says that the health system in Syria has collapsed and a large amount of people do not have access to health care.

He also added that children are the major victims of the ongoing civil war in Syria, adding that a large number of them have not over the past two years received their routine vaccinations.

Following a number of reported measles cases in the camp, in April our teams vaccinated over 19,500 people aged between six months and 29 years against measles, working with the Iraqi department of health. Measles still remains one of the key childhood murderer diseases, so vaccination campaigns can be lifesaving.

A senior United Nations humanitarian official told the UN news center that the total number of people in need of assistance as a result of the ongoing conflict in Syria is now 8.3 million, representing about 38 per cent of the country?s population.

In January, more than $1.5 billion was vowed by donors for the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis. Early next month, the UN and NGOs are due to declare a revised funding appeal in light of the growing needs.