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UN agencies have been working swiftly to cope with a sudden massive influxof Syrian refugees into northern Iraq, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.
"The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that since last Thursday, some 30,000 Syrians have streamed into northern Iraq," said Martin Nesirky said at a daily briefing.
With tens of thousands of people having crossed since last week, this new exodus is among the largest UNHCR has seen so far during the Syrian conflict, said Nesirky.
Nearly 2 million Syrians have fled their war-torn country and registered as refugees or applied for registration, with two- thirds of these arriving this year. There are now more than 684, 000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, 516,000 in Jordan, 434,000 in Turkey, 155,000 in Iraq, and 107,000 in Egypt, according to UN estimates.
The new influx began Thursday when Kurdistan authorities suddenly opened access to a temporary Peshkhabour pontoon bridge over the Tigris River. The vast majority of those crossing are children, women and elderly persons, with many having encamped by the river for the past few days waiting for the crossing point to open.
According to Nesirky, those fleeing told the UNHCR that they were forced to leave their hometown because of recent bombings, fighting among various factions on the ground, the collapse of the economy and the resulting difficulties in caring for their families.
"In response to the influx, the agency and its partners have erected shelters to provide shade and water, and food distributions have been set up at the crossing points," Nesirky said.
To boost rapidly shrinking aid supplies in Iraq, the UNHCR has sent 15 tractor-trailer trucks to northern Iraq from its stockpile in Amman, Jordan.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR is building a camp in cooperation with its partners and the Kurdish regional government, which is expected to be ready to accommodate refugees within weeks.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has been working with the UNHCR and has also been distributing life-saving supplies, including more than 125,000 liters of bottled water at Peshkhabour and four tankers of safe water to cover additional needs.
"A child protection team is at the border working to identify separated and unaccompanied children, to make sure they were on the buses for registration with the UN Refugee Agency, and that they continued to receive support at their final destinations," said Nesirky.
For its part, the World Food Program (WFP) has mobilized food from its stocks in Iraq, the spokesperson noted. "Distributions of 3,100 food parcels -- enough to feed 15,000 people for one week -- will begin today in some of the transit camps," Nesirky said.
The WFP will also send enough food to feed 185,000 people for one month from Turkey to Iraq, he said. "It is also ramping up its staffing presence on the ground to respond effectively and promptly to the influx of Syrians into Iraq."
