Failing Syrian Refugees in Iraq’s Kurdish Region: International Actors Can Do More

The efforts of the authorities in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KR-I) to welcome and integrate Syrian refu-gees presented international actors with a golden opportunity to support a positive, durable approach to the protection of refugees. One year into the Syrian refugee response in KR-I, this opportunity is fad-ing away and risks disappearing all together unless international actors substantially increase their sup-port - funding, political and technical - for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). The conditions for the refugees in Domiz camp are sub-standard and deteriorating by the day. There is increasing concern that some vulnerable households in the urban centres are also adopting harmful coping mechanisms, such as the occupation of unsafe/unfinished shelters, begging and prostitution. Without an immediate change in the provision of assistance and protection to refugees, the situation risks becoming a humani-tarian crisis, presenting substantial economic and social challenges for the Kurdish authorities.