Migration minister: Refugees from Nineveh, Hawija above 37000
A refugee camp in Mosul. (AA)
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Refugees leaving homes at Nineveh and Kirkuk’s Hawija to government refugee camps have surpassed 37000, said Migration and Displacement Minister Jassim Mohammed on Tuesday.
The number of refugees returning to their liberated areas in Nineveh, in the meantime, reached 2013, the minister said in a statement.
“The number of refugees in the ministry’s camps has reached 37184 since the start of [security] operations in Nineveh,” read the statement. “Ministry teams received today 1832 refugees from Mahlabiya, Farraj, Mosul and al-Samah in Nineveh, besides Hawijah region in Kirkuk,” the minister said, adding that those had been distributed among Hassan Sham and Debka camps southeast of Mosul.
Mohammed said ministry field teams had given out food and in-kind aid to the refugees upon their arrival at the admission centers.
In July, the United Nations said that battles between Islamic State fighters in Mosul and Iraqi joint forces seeking to liberate the city could lead to a humanitarian crisis requiring aid worth US$2 billion, speculating huge losses of civilian lives.