DUHOK, Kurdistan Region – UNHCR special envoy and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie warned in Duhok on Sunday that IDPs and refugees are suffering “terrible humanitarian consequences” in Iraqi, most importantly medical shortages.
Speaking of the refugee crisis and that of Iraq’s displaced ahead of the World Refugee Day coming up this week, Jolie said at a televised press conference from Domiz refugee camp,”This is my third visit to Domiz camp in six years. The vast majority of its inhabitants are women and children. Their lives are on hold indefinitely because of the war. They cannot go back and cannot move forward and each year they have less to live on.”
She also warned of growing medical shortage at the camps, explaining that she met “two women whose husbands died in the [Domiz] camp due to serious medical conditions and now their children suffer from serious medical conditions.”
The UN special envoy also said “when there is not even the bare minimum of aid, refugee families cannot receive adequate medical treatment.”
World Refugee Day falls on Wednesday, June 20 this year.
In part of her speech, she thanked the Kurdish and Iraqi governments for protecting war affected refugees and setting up camps to shelter them and the people of Iraq for their “generosity” of hosting Syrian refugees.
“I want to thank the people of Iraq for their generosity towards Syrian refugees and displaced and the KRI (Kurdistan Region of Iraq) government for setting an example for refugee protection.”
Jolie said that the UNHCR will be releasing new figures of displaced people and those living in exile on Tuesday and that they are at the highest number they have ever been before.
“Words like ‘unsustainable’ just don’t paint a picture just how desperate this situation really is,” she said.
The Hollywood star said “in my country, when we speak about the Middle East, we often focus on conflicts and suffering. It’s true that countless families in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen are suffering from a conflict they personally have no part in, instability they cannot control and extremism that they reject.”
The UNHCR special envoy said that political solutions to conflicts in the region are lacking and the only answer is to end the conflict and for all governments to meet their responsibilities of taking care of their citizens displaced by war.
“But it is not hopeless,” Jolie added “I saw in Mosul yesterday that with brick by brick they are rebuilding their own homes.
“So on World Refugee Day this year, I hope that we can find the strength to find a better way forward together so that we can move into a new era of preventing conflict and reducing instability, rather than simply struggling to deal with the consequences.”
This was Jolie’s third visit to Domiz camp in six years. The Domiz Camp shelters mostly Kurds displaced from their enclave of Rojava in Syria. Jolie visited Mosul on Saturday,calling the city destroyed by three years of ISIS control and the US-led military offensive to liberate the city “the worst devastation I have seen in all my years working with UNHCR.”
The scale of the destruction, especially in the old neighbourhoods of West Mosul, has been compared to some of the worst seen in the Second World War. Nearly a year on from the conclusion of the military offensive, East Mosul has sprung back to life, but West Mosul remains largely in ruins. Bodies are still being dug out of the rubble.
She called on the international community to help the people of Iraq rebuild and stabilize their communities.