ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 1,600 Syrians have arrived to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since Tuesday, according to the UN.
In a Friday statement, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said the refugees fleeing the conflict between Turkey and Kurdish forces in northeast Syria are going to the Bardarash camp.
“As of this morning, over 1,600 Syrian refugees have been transported from the border areas to Bardarash refugee camp,” Mahecic said. “Refugees mainly come from towns in northern Syria - Kobani, Amoda and Qamishly and surrounding villages.”
Turkey began Operation Peace Spring in northeast Syria on October 9 with the goal of setting up a “safe zone” free of the US-backed Kurdish group the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Turkey also hopes to use its Syrian rebel allies to carve out areas for the 3,000,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey to resettle, which some Kurds say amounts to forced demographic change in the mixed Kurdish, Arab and Christian area.
The operation has also killed more than 200 civilians and displaced around 300,000 people.
The new Syrian Kurdish refugees are from vulnerable populations, according to the UNHCR.
“Most of the new arrivals are women, children and elderly,” said Mahecic.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has a slightly higher figure for the number of refugees who have come in since Turkey’s intervention. In a Friday tweet, the KRG’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center said the 2,331 refugees have arrived since Tuesday. The Kurdistan Region is already hosting 226,336 Syrian refugees who fled earlier on in the eight-year-long civil war, according to the center.
The new wave of refugees from Syria mainly resulted from the Turkish incursion into northern Syria, also withdrawal decision by NGOs from northern Syria, citing security concerns and logistical difficulties arising from heavy fighting across the region.
NGOs are also leaving northern Syria, citing security concerns and logistical difficulties. Their exodus is making it harder to provide aid to the hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting.
Due to the Turkish incursion into Northern Syria, more than a dozen international NGO have left the area.
However, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed to Rudaw that their office in the Hasakah province is still open, and they are still working in northeast Syria
"We have an office in Hasakah city, covering the 3 governorates of northeast Syria,” said ICRC’s Spokesperson for the near and Middle East Sarah Alzawqari. “So far, we have not reduced our presence and have been adapting our response to meet urgent humanitarian needs arising from the hostilities.”
ICRC also confirmed that they are still operating in the Al-Hol camp for Islamic State (ISIS) affiliated families and that ICRC hospitals and clinics are also running as normal.
On Thursday, US Vice President Mike Pence announced a ceasefire between Turkish and Kurdish-led forces in a press conference in Ankara late on Thursday after hours of talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The 13-point agreement, which does not use the word ceasefire, states, “The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow the withdrawal of YPG from the safe zone within 120 hours. Operation Peace Spring will be halted upon completion of this withdrawal.”
However, it took mere hours for apparent violations to occur in the US-brokered agreement for a five-day cessation of hostilities between Turkish forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the YPG leads, in northeastern Syria.
According to the Rojava Information Center, a research group in northeast Syria, at least eight civilians have been killed less than 24 hours into the truce.
