Official says Iraq's KRG region now hosts 1.6M refugees

By Hemin Huseyin

ERBIL, Iraq

The number of people who have fled conflict zones and sought refuge in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region now stands at some 1,670,000, according to an official at the Erbil-based Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)’s migration office.

Since 2011, the region has absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled Iraq’s northern city of Mosul -- overrun by the Daesh terrorist group in 2014 -- and other conflict-hit cities and regions.

KRG Migration Office Director Shakir Yasin told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the number of Syrian refugees in the region now stood at some 246,000.

"Most of them are staying in the city of Dohuk, while another 6,000 refugees from Iran are now in the Sulaymaniyah province," he said.

"Daesh’s capture of Mosul and Anbar triggered an additional outflow of refugees to the region," added Yasin.

"Meanwhile, areas liberated from Daesh have been destroyed," he asserted.

"The Iraqi government must allocate funds to rebuild these areas and reestablish a degree of normalcy to allow these people to return to their homes," the official said.

*AA correspondent Ahmet Sait Akcay contributed to this report from Ankara