Prime Minister Of Iraqi Kurdistan Commends UAE's Support For Refugees, Displaced People

ERBIL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th May, 2021) Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, has hailed the significant role played by the UAE in improving the health and humanitarian conditions in the region, highlighting the valuable development programmes and projects carried out by the Emirates for the sake of Iraqi displaced people and Syrian refugees living in the Iraqi Kurdistan.

Barzani made the remarks as he welcomed in his office in Erbil the visiting UAE delegation led by the Emirates Red Crescent Secretary General, Dr. Mohammed Ateeq Al Falahi. Undersecretary of Department of Health-Abu Dhabi, Dr Mohammed Alkaabi, along with a number of ERC officials, attended the meeting in the presence of the UAE Consul - General in Erbil, Ahmed Al Dhaheri.

"The UAE has always been at the forefront of efforts made to stand by the Iraqi people, and fulfilling their developmental and humanitarian needs," he said, hailing the directives of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), the Honorary Chairwoman of the ERC, and the follow-up of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra Region, Chairman of the Emirates Red Crescent, to launch the first phase of a vaccination programme to inoculate 15,000 refugees and displaced persons in Iraqi Kurdistan camps with COVID-19 Sinopharm, as the number of people fleeing persecutions and wars in Syria and Iraq increased over the past years.

"The UAE has set a model to be emulated for noble humanitarian efforts that embrace all irrespective of any sectarian, religious, or ethnic considerations," he added.

For his part, Al Falahi briefed the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, who is also the chairman of the Barzani Charity Foundation, on the details of the UAE delegation's mission in the region, which is aimed at contributing to improving the healthcare services provided to the Iraqi displaced people and Syrian refugees by providing COVID-19 vaccines to around 15,000 refugees and displaced people in Erbil's camps. He highlighted the ERC's efforts to rehabilitate the region's health establishments by offering logistical support, including medical appliances, medications and other needed facilities. Al Falahi in this respect lauded the existing partnership between the ERC and Barzani Charity Foundation, which is the authority's local partner in Northern Iraq.

The UAE delegation visited the Emirates Autism Centre in Erbil, which has been established recently to meet the educational and medical needs of autistic children in Northern Iraq. The delegates also opened a number of facilities affiliated to the Centre to support its mission.

Millions of displaced people and refugees have benefitted from the ERC's humanitarian and relief assistance in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past five years in a number of vital fields. Such support included the establishment of three major refugees camps in Erbil which accommodate tens of thousands of displaced families coming from inside Iraq as well as those fleeing from Syria. These camps are Bahraka, Debaga, and Koshtaba. This is in addition to supporting other camps in Hershm, Shaqlawa, Hiran, Korkosk, Dahuk, and Farmanbran- which are supervised by other organisations as part of the ongoing cooperation between the ERC and others humanitarian agencies.

In the health field, the ERC established a number of medical facilities that cater to the needs of displaced people and refugees in addition to the locals in Erbil. These include Ataya Hospital for Motherhood and Childhood in Bahraka, in addition to a number of other medical facilities and clinics inside and outside of the refugee camps.

The ERC also established a centre dedicated to orphans and children of missing people whose number increased due to the war, which led to the diaspora increasing manyfold over the past decades as people fled persecutions and wars.

In the field of education, the ERC has established 11 schools for boys and girls of parents missing in war. The UAE's humanitarian arm has in addition effectively contributed to strengthening the infrastructure of camps by renovating water, electricity and sanitation systems together with providing thousands of tonnes of food supplies and establishing bakeries inside the camps.

Tens of groundwater wells have been drilled as well in different parts of Erbil to improve water supplies to camps and adjacent residential areas suffering shortage of water. The ERC has in addition helped the refugees find sources of income to improve their economic conditions by setting up garment production factories where women can work for fixed income by providing thousands of apparels and schools uniforms for the children of the refugees and displaced people.