ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Ninety percent of 338,000 refugees and asylum seekers who live in Iraq, are Syrian and have primarily sought shelter in the Kurdistan Region, a UN report finds. 

 

“As of December 2024, Iraq hosted over 338,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, 90 percent of whom are Syrians residing primarily in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq," according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

 

The report details that “Over 70 percent live in urban areas alongside the host community while the remaining are in nine camps in the KR-I [Kurdistan Region of Iraq].”

 

Following the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the decade-long Syrian civil war in 2011, many Syrians sought refuge in neighboring countries, fleeing for their lives. 

 

“More than 11,500 refugee children completed their formal and non-formal education at primary and secondary levels in Dohuk,” the recently published report adds.

 

Mirvan Badini, an official with the Syrian Kurdish Students and Youth Union in the Kurdistan Region, told The New Region in June that 314 Syrian refugee students are currently enrolled in universities across the Region. 

 

The fall of the Assad regime and repeated calls by the new authorities in Damascus have not been enough to restore confidence in the displaced Syrians to return home yet.

 

Millions of Syrians remain displaced while the country prepares to rebuild.

 

Syrian refugees have sought asylum in more than 130 countries, but the vast majority live in neighboring countries including Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.

 

The UNHCR report adds that Iraq also has more than a million internally displaced persons (IDPs), detailing that “some 110,000 live in 20 IDP camps in the KR-I," despite Baghdad's continued efforts to close down all camps across the country.