HIGHLIGHTS
In the reporting period:
Arrivals – Syrians continue to enter the KR-I, with 4,493 individuals entering through the Peshkhabour border in the month of November. With several changes in admission procedures, the number of Syrians admitted as asylum seekers upon arrival into KR-I through the Peshkhabour border has sharply decreased this year: from 50% in January to 3% this month, while 97% entered as visitors or for medical reasons. Of those visitors, many at a later stage eventually approach UNHCR to change their status into asylum-seekers.
This brings the total number of new arrivals since January 2015 to 56,601 individuals at the end of November, of which 10,877 individuals entered as asylum-seekers.
Returns and departures – November confirmed a general downward trend in Syrians individuals leaving Iraq. The number of spontaneous returns to Syria has continued to decrease, with 1,663 registered asylum seekers departing from the KR-I through the Peshkabour border, back to spring levels. This brings the total number of Syrian returnees to 24,120 individuals this year.
Spontaneous departures of Syrian individuals from the KR-I to Turkey are decreasing as well: in November, 1,267 Syrians crossed legally into Turkey from the KR-I via the Ibrahim Khalil border, about half the numbers observed in August, bringing the total number of departures to Turkey to 16,735 individuals this year.
Winterization activities are well underway with in-kind assistance already distributed to more refugee families than was originally thought possible in Duhok and Erbil governorate and on-going distributions of kerosene in kind and in cash in all three governorates.
Clowns without Borders toured KR-I for three weeks, performing 30 shows in 20 days to the great pleasure of over 10,000 children and adults alike in camps (refugee and IDP ) and urban areas.
POPULATION OF CONCERN
244,527 Syrian refugees
KEY FIGURES
15,661 Children have been provided with psychosocial services since January 2015
4,493 Syrians entered the KR-I through the Peshkhabour border
2,930 Syrians left KR-I
81,177 Syrian refugees received the first round of Oral Cholera Vaccination
FUNDING
USD 426,041,332 Requested by agencies for the operation in 2015 (Source: 2015 3RP – Iraq)