|
|
RESETTLEMENT PROJECT
Resettlement of displaced people has become a major feature
of Qandil’s work. Today we are the largest implementing
partner to UNHCR in Northern Iraq. Our programme is providing
assistance to two refugee groups: (i) Iranian Kurds, and (ii)
Turkish Kurds.
|
| Barika project |
|
| The Iranian Kurds sought refuge as early as 1979
in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution and at the beginning
of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. In 1982, some of the refugees
were accommodated in Al Tash camp, located near Ramadi, Anbar
Governorate. During the period between the start of the conflict
in 2003 and July 2005, 647 families were identified as having
left Al Tash camp |
| and arrived in Sulemania Governorate. 277 refugee
families received settlement assistance in Barika during 2005.
Qandil constructed 350 houses, internal roads, water distribution
networks, sewer system, electricity, primary healthcare clinic,
primary school and improved the environment through garbage
collection teams. |
 |
|
|
Kawa Transit Camp
In July 2005, Qandil began work on its most high profile refugee
project to date in the construction of the Kawa transit camp.
Situated adjacent to the collective town of Kawa, in the district
of Qushtapa, Erbil Governorate, the camp was built on land donated
by the local authorities with the funding of UNHCR, whose protection
the camp is under. Kawa transit camp offers more than two hundred
Iranian-Kurdish refugee families the chance at a new life in
the stable environment of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Prior
to coming to Kawa, these families suffered years of deprivation,
living in the dilapidated Al Tash camp near the city of Ramadi
in restive Al Anbar province, having fled Iran in the early
1980s, during the war with Iraq. In October 2005, Qandil broke
ground for the construction of the camp, and by January 2006
more than 200 families had moved into Kawa Camp.
|
 |
|
|
|
The camp facilities include a basic health center with two
full-time doctors seeing patients and twice-weekly presence
of a female gynecologist, a vaccination unit and a small pharmacy.
Another building functions as a school, with nine classrooms
for the 325 primary school-age children, run in conjunction
with the Ministry of Education. In May 2006, Qandil began
.construction of 144 new houses, a new school and a health
center in an area adjacent to the camp, as part of a durable
solution for these families. A number of the former refugees
are employed as unskilled labor for the project, and a variety
of integration activities are taking place prior to completion
of construction. The host community will benefit from the
school and health center, and Qandil is extending the water
distribution network and electrical grid to each home as well.
It is hoped that over time, this settlement will transform
itself from a temporary camp for refugees into an independent,
functioning community, integrated into Iraqi Kurdistan.
| Makhmur Refugee Camp |
|
| Makhmur Refugee Camp was established in
1998 as a result of an agreement between former Iraqi
regime and UNHCR. The Turkish-Kurdish refugees, of whom
the majority arrived in Iraq in 1994, initially inhabited
a camp located in Atrush situated in Dahuk Governorate.
For security reasons the Atrush camp was closed and the
refugees were relocated to MakhmurCamp. Until the 2003
conflict, basic assistance was provided by |
| UNHCR and the former Iraqi regime. With
the fall of the Ba’athist Government, these services
were temporarily disrupted. After the 2003 war Qandil
volunteered to provide health services for the refugees
in the camp until the provision of services was re-established
by the authorities. In consequence of the various assessments
carried out by UNHCR staff in 2003, the cooperation between
Qandil and UNHCR was formalized and extended to other
activities such as healthcare services, water and sanitation
infrastructure, education, and community services. |
|
|
|
