Syrian Kurdish Refugees Find Home in Former Prison
AKRE, Kurdistan Region — Syrian Kurds who fled fighting in their homeland have found an odd-seeming place to restore normalcy to their lives: a run-down former prison in Akre, a mountain city in the Kurdistan region’s Dohuk province.
On a recent day at the former detention facility, which also served as a Baathist military compound, parents watch as their children set off fireworks in the facility’s courtyard.
Meanwhile, youngsters work on a mural covering part of the two-storey, yellow structure’s walls and stairwells. Cartoon characters, animals and hearts are popular themes in the art project sponsored by the Rise Foundation humanitarian non-governmental organization and local teachers.
“I like the trees, flowers, woods—the natural views,” said English teacher and fellow refugee Nazim Qamr, 29. He would prefer the children avoid cartoon characters, he said, but it is not up to him.
“We ask the children and listen to their opinions about what they like and don’t like,” Qamr said.
As rays of sun occasionally burst through the clouds on an otherwise gloomy day late last month, the postcard beauty of the area made it easy to forget the Akre settlement is, in fact, a refugee settlement.
Housing just under 1,500 people—many of them small children—residents here are afforded small apartments converted from prison cells. Still, many admit these shelters are superior to the UN tents and ad-hoc structures at many of the region’s other refugee camps.
“They gave each family a room,” said 24-year-old English teacher Kawther Ahmed, originally from Damascus.
She came to Akre with her family a year and a half ago, and said camp administrators from the Kurdistan Regional Government have done their best to ensure the Syrian Kurds feel welcome.
“Compared to the tents, this building is better,” she said.
Because the Syrians at Akre have been taken in by their fellow ethnic Kurds, they are reportedly allowed more privileges than the local government typically allows non-Kurdish refugees.
Residents of the Akre settlement may freely come and go from the camp once they have filed residency paperwork, and can seek work in the local community.
Despite some advantages given to Kurdish refugees in Kurdish territory, many of Akre’s Syrians still bear the scars of their homeland’s complex civil war, and have faced difficulties adjusting to life in Iraq.
Adnan Mahmoud, 35, originally a mechanic from Qamishli, fled the forces of the so-called Islamic State in Syria and came to Iraq a year and half ago. Since that time he has developed a cataract in his left eye, and he said he has gone partially blind.
“It’s a simple surgery, but they don’t have doctors here to do it, and I’ve filed paperwork to go to a hospital that can, but nothing’s working,” he said.
He added his young daughter Haifa suffered a knee injury, and has had an X-ray done, but she also needs surgery. Some refugees at Akre, he said, struggle to find even basic medical care.
Mahmoud’s neighbor Samir Mohamed Saleh, 31, is a former restaurant worker who lived in both Syria and Lebanon before fleeing to Iraq a year and a half ago. He said in addition to insufficient medical care, work opportunities for Syrian Kurds in Iraq are limited and low paying.
Both Saleh and Mahmoud said they would like to be able to find real work like they had in Syria. Like other men in the camp, they took jobs packing and loading gravel, but they said the salary is poor and the work exhausting, sometimes as little as $1.30 a day.
“We need real work. We need self-respect,” Samir said.
He adds, though, that the Iraqi Kurds have been gracious, and at least in Akre he has a roof over his head and food to eat.
“It’s good here, we have bread, electricity, food and water,” he said.
“The Kurds in Iraq have helped us a lot, I mean we’re the same nation, but we still need more.”
On a recent day at the former detention facility, which also served as a Baathist military compound, parents watch as their children set off fireworks in the facility’s courtyard.
Meanwhile, youngsters work on a mural covering part of the two-storey, yellow structure’s walls and stairwells. Cartoon characters, animals and hearts are popular themes in the art project sponsored by the Rise Foundation humanitarian non-governmental organization and local teachers.
“I like the trees, flowers, woods—the natural views,” said English teacher and fellow refugee Nazim Qamr, 29. He would prefer the children avoid cartoon characters, he said, but it is not up to him.
“We ask the children and listen to their opinions about what they like and don’t like,” Qamr said.
As rays of sun occasionally burst through the clouds on an otherwise gloomy day late last month, the postcard beauty of the area made it easy to forget the Akre settlement is, in fact, a refugee settlement.
Housing just under 1,500 people—many of them small children—residents here are afforded small apartments converted from prison cells. Still, many admit these shelters are superior to the UN tents and ad-hoc structures at many of the region’s other refugee camps.
“They gave each family a room,” said 24-year-old English teacher Kawther Ahmed, originally from Damascus.
She came to Akre with her family a year and a half ago, and said camp administrators from the Kurdistan Regional Government have done their best to ensure the Syrian Kurds feel welcome.
“Compared to the tents, this building is better,” she said.
Because the Syrians at Akre have been taken in by their fellow ethnic Kurds, they are reportedly allowed more privileges than the local government typically allows non-Kurdish refugees.
Residents of the Akre settlement may freely come and go from the camp once they have filed residency paperwork, and can seek work in the local community.
Despite some advantages given to Kurdish refugees in Kurdish territory, many of Akre’s Syrians still bear the scars of their homeland’s complex civil war, and have faced difficulties adjusting to life in Iraq.
Adnan Mahmoud, 35, originally a mechanic from Qamishli, fled the forces of the so-called Islamic State in Syria and came to Iraq a year and half ago. Since that time he has developed a cataract in his left eye, and he said he has gone partially blind.
“It’s a simple surgery, but they don’t have doctors here to do it, and I’ve filed paperwork to go to a hospital that can, but nothing’s working,” he said.
He added his young daughter Haifa suffered a knee injury, and has had an X-ray done, but she also needs surgery. Some refugees at Akre, he said, struggle to find even basic medical care.
Mahmoud’s neighbor Samir Mohamed Saleh, 31, is a former restaurant worker who lived in both Syria and Lebanon before fleeing to Iraq a year and a half ago. He said in addition to insufficient medical care, work opportunities for Syrian Kurds in Iraq are limited and low paying.
Both Saleh and Mahmoud said they would like to be able to find real work like they had in Syria. Like other men in the camp, they took jobs packing and loading gravel, but they said the salary is poor and the work exhausting, sometimes as little as $1.30 a day.
“We need real work. We need self-respect,” Samir said.
He adds, though, that the Iraqi Kurds have been gracious, and at least in Akre he has a roof over his head and food to eat.
“It’s good here, we have bread, electricity, food and water,” he said.
“The Kurds in Iraq have helped us a lot, I mean we’re the same nation, but we still need more.”