Attachments
Working with Partners
- UNHCR is engaged in the inter-agency response for ongoing displacement and returns.
- UNHCR leads the Protection, Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), and Shelter/Non-Food Items (also known as core relief items or CRIs) clusters, as part of the cluster coordination mechanism for IDP response. UNHCR is also co-leading, with UN Habitat, the Working Group on Sustainable Solutions for IDPs within the Resilience and Recovery Programme (RRP) for Iraq.
- Through the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), UNHCR leads the humanitarian response for Syrian refugees in coordination with authorities.
- UNHCR also collaborates with authorities in the Central government and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) to assist non-Syrian refugees and asylum-seekers, and on statelessness prevention and response.
Main Activities
Protection
- Refugees – UNHCR coordinates the response for refugees with all local and international partners. Activities include registration, protection monitoring and advocacy, psychosocial support, child protection, and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) services. Resettlement to third countries is pursued for a small number of refugees with acute vulnerabilities.
- IDPs – IDP protection is a significant part of UNHCR’s work in Iraq. Direct interventions are undertaken with local, regional and national authorities to ensure that those displaced can access safety in camps and in non-camp locations. Protection monitoring teams have been deployed to identify protection and assistance needs, which directly inform protection responses, including provision of legal assistance on a range of issues such as missing civil documentation; prevention and response to GBV and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA); child protection; reuniting separated families; coordinating IDP protection responses with the Government, NGOs and UN, and provision of other critical protection support.
- IDP Returns – Ensuring that returns are voluntary, safe and in dignity is a strategic priority for UNHCR and the humanitarian community in Iraq. UNHCR monitors the return of displaced persons to their areas of origin and intervenes with authorities when there are incidents of barred returns; risks of forced or pressured returns to areas which are unsafe and can cause personal protection risks; contamination with explosive remnants of war (ERW) and improvised explosive devices (IED); presence of militias; proximity to conflict areas; widespread destruction of property; and/or the absence of critical infrastructure and basic services.
Shelter and NFIs
- UNHCR provides shelter assistance and CRIs, and coordinates with humanitarian actors to complement the work of local authorities to improve living conditions of vulnerable IDPs in camp and non-camp settings throughout Iraq.
- Approximately 636,000 IDPs in Iraq are hosted in 89 camps, of which UNHCR has built or rehabilitated 40. UNHCR is also engaged in the provision of assistance to non-camp IDPs.
- 97% of Syrian refugees in Iraq live in the KR-I; 38% stay in 9 camps, with the remainder living in urban and periurban areas. Shelter priorities for Syrian refugees include the improvement and upgrading of shelters. Of the 19,000 plots in refugee camps in the KR-I, over 95% have been improved with concrete bases for the tents and an individual kitchen, latrine, and shower. Over 65% have been upgraded with solid house-like structures.
- UNHCR has begun distributing winter assistnace with a mix of CRIs and cash to over 101,000 refugee and IDP households in and out of camps.
Camp Coordination and Camp Management
- As the CCCM Cluster lead, UNHCR works with local authorities and humanitarian actors to provide coordinated services to IDPs. In camps, this translates to ensuring adequate shelter, delivery of food and water, presence of education and health facilities in camps, and capacity building for camp management actors and service providers. The CCCM Cluster supports efforts to identify suitable sites for camps and ensure that services are readily available upon arrival of IDPs. Mobile teams from partners provide CCCM services to camps and out-of-camp settlements throughout Iraq.