Iraq to establish camps for Syrian refugees

The Iraqi government decided on Tuesday to establish camps for Syrian refugees along the Rabia and al-Qaim crossing points.     

Humanitarian aid would be made available to Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home, the governor of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul said on Monday (July 23), just hours before an order from the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to open up his country's borders allowing Syrian refugees to enter Iraq.  

The order - circulated to the Iraqi army, border guard forces, Red Crescent and other government officials – said preparations should be made to receive Syrians "whose extraordinary conditions in their country oblige them to change location," the statement from Maliki's office said.   

Syrian forces had reasserted control over the Yarubiya crossing point on the Syrian side of the frontier, briefly seized by rebels on Saturday (July 21).

But on Monday afternoon the border crossing gate was still closed on the Syrian side. Nujaifi said this was because the crossing did not have the equipment it needed to operate.                    

Syrian rebels say they control another crossing, at Albu Kamal-Qaim, based on a major trade route further north. It was sealed by the Iraqi army due to government fears that the violence in Syria could spill across the border.     

Rabia crossing passed briefly into rebel hands but is now under the command of the Syrian government forces.

RTV