UNHCR preparing for huge displacement from Iraq's Mosul
Date
8/24/2016 12:31:54 AM
(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
GENEVA, 23rd August, 2016 (WAM) – Displacement in Iraq may be about to worsen dramatically with the focus of military action turning towards retaking Mosul, the country's second largest city, the United Nations Refugee Agency, said today.
"Mosul is Iraq's second largest city, and the humanitarian impact of a military offensive there is expected to be enormous. Up to 1.2 million people could be affected," Adrian Edwards, spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday (23rd August). Already, in recent months, some 213,000 people have fled their homes in different parts of Iraq.
The UNHCR provides humanitarian support, including shelter, emergency relief kits and protection services, such as legal aid for displaced families. With the impending situation in Mosul, Edwards said the UN Refugee Agency is now expanding its efforts to be able to assist hundreds of thousands more people.
"The UNHCR is doing what it can amid enormous challenges to build more camps to accommodate people and mitigate suffering, but additional land for camps and funding is still needed," Edwards said.
He stressed that contingency plans have been drawn up to provide shelter for up to 120,000 people fleeing conflict in Mosul and surrounding areas, as part of an inter-agency response to the crisis. Across the region a series of camps are in the process of being expanded or established while other shelter options are being prepared.
Altogether, the UNHCR is looking to set up camps in up to six locations across northern Iraq although progress depends on both the availability of land and of funding. The UNHCR's overall appeal for $584 million for displaced people including Iraqi refugees in the region was only 38 per cent funded as of 2nd August.
GVA
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