The first officially-recognised Iraqi refugees fleeing the conflict in Iraq entered neighbouring Syria from the north on Sunday at the Al-Yarubiyah border crossing, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported.
The arrival of the 14 Iraqis comes less than three days after Syria announced on Thursday that it would open its borders to refugees, reversing its earlier position of refusing them entry [see earlier IRIN story, "
UN hails decision to open border, support Iraqi refugees"].
Furthermore, on Saturday, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached an agreement with the governor of Al-Hasakah Province on the establishment of a transit facility at the Al-Yarubiyah border crossing, and a second facility at Al-Tanf. According to UNHCR, these centres should open later this week, and would include a medical team and supplies of food and water for any arriving refugees.
"The timing of this decision was important due to fighting in northern Iraq around Mosul and Kirkuk," the UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler, told a news conference in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Al-Yarubiyah is located about 100 km from UNHCR's long-time refugee camp at El Hol, which has been enlarged in recent days with additional water and sanitation facilities, 340 tents erected with supplies for more on the ground, blankets, mattresses, kitchen sets, stoves and lanterns, among other items, for up to 5,000 people. In addition, the World Food Programme has food supplies available.
According to Kessler, UNHCR now has two mobile teams visiting border crossings along Syria's border with Iraq:in addition to its staff at Al-Yarubiyah, the refugee agency has had a second team monitoring the Al-Tanf crossing since Saturday. UNHCR's staff in eastern Syria reported that the frontier was quiet.
In related news, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported on Sunday that 28 Moroccans fleeing Iraq had left Damascus for Casablanca aboard a Syrian Airways flight. The group, which had arrived at the Moroccan embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 19 March, was the first indication that significant numbers of third country nationals (TCNs) were beginning to enter Syria, according to IOM.
Also on Sunday, IOM deployed operational staff to Al-Hasakah, and to Al-Tanf, Abu Kamal and Al-Yarubiyah on the Iraqi border. IOM said each location would be equipped with transit areas to receive TCNs and refugees or asylum seekers crossing in from Iraq.
However, as the readiness of the camps remained unclear, IOM was planning to move these people to the 12,000-person-capacity El Hol refugee camp, where TCNs would be supported by IOM and the International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent in a separate part of the camp. Once in the camp, IOM doctors would screen TCNs to ensure that they were fit for onward travel to their home countries from Damascus as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, in Damascus, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, has agreed to house TCNs en route for departure from the capital with IOM. Several of the Moroccan families stayed in the facility, and four more Moroccans and one Eritrean were scheduled to fly home with IOM within the
next two days.
Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Sunday that it was holding consultations with other UN agencies and NGOs to decide responsibilities at three camp sites being planned in case of a refugee influx into Syria. UNICEF said it expected to be involved in education, child protection and health using a donation from the Japanese government. It added that it was also planning a therapeutic feeding programme with partners for malnourished children.