Parliament announces three-day campaign of donations for Rojava refugees

Kurdistan Parliament Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami on 24 November at a press conference announced the launch of a campaign to raise donations for the Kurdish and other peoples of Rojava (Western Kurdistan) who have fled to Kurdistan Region due to military operations in Northeast Syria. The donation drive is one of Parliament’s 12 recommendations on Rojava that MPs passed by a large majority at a sitting on 15 October.  

Deputy Speaker Hawrami announced the launch of the donations campaign at a press conference, together with Parliament Secretary Muna Kahveci and the heads of the parliamentary blocks. On behalf of Parliament Presidency’s, the parliamentary blocks and the committee that supervises the campaign, he thanked MPs and Parliament staff for their efforts.

The Deputy Speaker gave the latest statistic from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Interior of the recent arrival of 17,000 refugees from Western Kurdistan to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The total number of IDPs and refugees in Kurdistan has reached 1,042,462 people, including 790,000 Iraqi IDPs and 252,386 refugees from Western Kurdistan.

Mr. Hawrami said that although Kurdistan Region underwent a severe economic crisis and the KRG did not have the budget to meet the basic needs of refugees, the people of Kurdistan Region stood by the people of Rojava, welcomed them and made donations as their national, humanitarian and moral duty.

The Deputy Speaker called on charitable citizens and local and international aid organizations to contribute to Kurdistan Parliament’s campaign to help their Kurdistani brothren in the refugee camps, as a national and moral duty.

The campaign supervisor MP Liza Falakadin Kakayi (KDP) said that based on Parliament’s 12-point recommendations, MPs announced the campaign to collect aid and support for refugees for three days in the Parliament building.

Ms. Kakayi said the campaign reaffirms that Kurdistan considers the refugees from Rojava as brethren and family, and shows MPs’ cross-party action and national stance on the issue.

Ms. Kakayi thanked the people of Kurdistan Region for their efforts to support IDPs and refugees, and called on the Iraqi Federal Government to provide financial assistance to them through the Iraqi emergency budget or from Iraq’s reserved budget, in coordination with the KRG.