GENEVA / IRAQ UPDATE

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that nearly 400,000 Iraqis mainly from minority groups have now been displaced in the north-western parts of the country, escaping violence unleashed by the militant group Islamic state. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:43
• Production Date: 12 August 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: IRAQ
• MAMS Id: 1147202

Description

STORY: GENEVA / IRAQ UPDATE
TRT: 2.43
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 12 AUGUST 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, exterior of Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesperson, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“New arrivals are exhausted, dehydrated. Many have suffered sun or heat stroke. We are seeing daily temperatures between 40 and 45°C. People are moving to places including Zakho and Dohuk town where 16 school buildings have been made available. Food and water and medical care are being provided. As of now, an estimated 20/30,000 people remain trapped on Sinjar Mountain without food, water or shelter. Access to these families is extremely limited. In Zakho, according to the mayor, his city of 350,000 people is now hosting some 100,000 displaced people, mainly from Sinjar and Zumar who have fled there over the past week. Local authorities have opened schools, community buildings to house the displaced, who also are taking shelter beneath bridges and unfinished buildings.”
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesperson, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“Some people are staying with relatives, others are in schools, churches, mosques, other communal buildings. UNHCR is distributing blankets, emergency relief kits, household aid to people in these locations. We’re also seeing enormous generosity by the local people who are themselves handing out aid to people.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesperson, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
"In terms of what we can do it’s still very limited. Access is very, very difficult. You can’t stay there long. There are immense problems of having to organise aid effort to so many people. Remember we’re talking tens of thousands of people who’ve been up there. The people who’ve fled Sinjar are arriving in worsening conditions by the day. They’ve been exposed to this environment, lack of water, immense difficulties of simply existing up there. For some time now and there needs are very great indeed."
8. Close up, computer
9. Wide shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Garwood, Spokesperson, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have high concerns about the overcrowded-ness associated with the displacement of the people and how this could provide conditions for further outbreaks of diseases such as polio.”
11. Wide shot, briefing room

Storyline

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that nearly 400,000 Iraqis mainly from minority groups have now been displaced in the north-western parts of the country, escaping violence unleashed by the militant group Islamic state.

The majority of the displaced are hosted in the Dohuk governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

UNHCR said the displaced are scattered across hundreds of sites including churches, mosques, parks, abandoned apartment buildings or hosted by relatives.

The agency said up to 30,000 people remain trapped on Sinjar mountain without food, water or shelter.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards said those who have managed to escape Sinjar mountains are arriving exhausted, dehydrated, with many having suffered sun or heat stroke due to high temperatures.

He also said “we are seeing daily temperatures between 40 and 45°C. People are moving to places including Zakho and Dohuk town where 16 school buildings have been made available. Food and water and medical care are being provided.”

Edwards added “as of now, an estimated 20/30,000 people remain trapped on Sinjar Mountain without food, water or shelter. Access to these families is extremely limited.”

He explained that In Zakho, according to the mayor, his city of 350,000 people is now hosting some 100,000 displaced people, mainly from Sinjar and Zumar who have fled there over the past week.

Edwards also said “some people are staying with relatives, others are in schools, churches, mosques, other communal buildings. UNHCR is distributing blankets, emergency relief kits, household aid to people in these locations. We’re also seeing enormous generosity by the local people who are themselves handing out aid to people.”

There are now more than 1.2 million internally displaced people in Iraq, including an estimated 700,000 in the Kurdistan region, which already hosts some 220,000 Syrian refugees.

As the displacement crisis continues, a mass polio vaccination campaign is underway in Iraq, carried out by the Ministry of Health and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Also speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Paul Garwood said “we have high concerns about the overcrowded-ness associated with the displacement of the people and how this could provide conditions for further outbreaks of diseases such as polio.”

According to WHO, two cases of polio have been reported in Iraq this year, ending nearly 14 years of the country having been polio-free. It’s hoped that over four million children under the age of five will be vaccinated against the disease during the current immunization campaign.