Iraq approves $12m in aid to Syrian refugees

The Iraqi government has agreed to allocate 15 billion dinars (around $12 million) in aid to Syrian refugees who have recently arrived in the thousands in Iraq's northern region. The aid will be delivered by the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, which initially called for it, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Prime Minister's office. Last week saw 26,000 Syrian refugees cross the border into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the north, said Dindar Zebari, deputy head of the regional administration's foreign relations office. After the border gates opened on 16-17 August, 5,000 Syrians came in, followed by an additional 15,000 on Saturday and 6,000 on the next two days, Zebari said. The total number now stands at 180,000, he said, with 100,000 living in Duhok, 60,000 in Irbil and 20,000 in Sulaymaniyah. Sixty percent of the refugees live outside camps, Zebari said. Camps in Irbil now house twenty thousand Syrians. Zebari said 600 tents had been put up, and 250 more would be added. The United Nations said nearly 30,000 Syrian refugees came into Iraq last week, making it one of the largest mass migrations out of a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions.