Amid warnings about a new wave of migration from Syria, with an escalation of fighting in Aleppo and as European nations grapple to find a solution to the worsening refugee crisis, another danger is looming large on the lives of thousands of Syrian refugees in Iraq and neighbouring countries following the spread of cholera in the country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday that Iraq is planning to hold a mass vaccination campaign to halt a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 1,800 people.
WHO expressed fears that the life-threatening disease could spread among refugees in the region and beyond.
Dominique Legros, head of WHO’s cholera unit said that since early September Iraq has confirmed 1,811 cases of the acute diarrhoeal disease across 15 of the country’s 18 governorates, including most recently in the northern autonomous Kurdish region. The arrival of cholera in the northern Kurdish region is particularly concerning due to the large numbers of Syrian refugees there, Legros said, pointing out that conditions in refugee camps are particularly conducive to the spread of the disease.
“Whether you put a refugee camp in Europe or in Nigeria or in Syria, the problem remains the same,” he said, pointing out that if people “don’t have access to safe water and someone contaminates the water and someone else drinks it, they get cholera.”
Although WHO has affirmed that the situation in Iraq is currently under control, the outbreak underlines the vulnerability of the mushrooming refugee population to such mass disasters. Hundreds of refugees have lost their lives during their hazardous journey to Europe while millions continue to live in pathetic conditions in refugee camps in countries bordering Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recently warned that around 100,000 people are on the move following a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive on Aleppo. Syrian refugees have increasingly lost hope of returning home and also sense that Europe’s doors will soon be shut “so they think ‘better get moving’,” news agencies quoted Louisa Vinton, a UN official in Macedonia as saying. With no end in sight for the Syrian crisis, an increasing number of refugees in the neighbouring countries have lost hope of building a new life, with jobs hard to find and their living conditions deteriorating. This is the main factor forcing them to flee to European countries.
People who have nothing to dream of could easily fall prey to extremist ideologies, which is what is happening in the region. The refugee crisis has betrayed the weaknesses of the European Union, in terms of developing a uniform strategy based on human rights values, while the unending Syrian conflict has jeopardised the credibility of the international community. The longer the war continues, the graver the consequences.
Amid warnings about a new wave of migration from Syria, with an escalation of fighting in Aleppo and as European nations grapple to find a solution to the worsening refugee crisis, another danger is looming large on the lives of thousands of Syrian refugees in Iraq and neighbouring countries following the spread of cholera in the country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday that Iraq is planning to hold a mass vaccination campaign to halt a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 1,800 people.
WHO expressed fears that the life-threatening disease could spread among refugees in the region and beyond.
Dominique Legros, head of WHO’s cholera unit said that since early September Iraq has confirmed 1,811 cases of the acute diarrhoeal disease across 15 of the country’s 18 governorates, including most recently in the northern autonomous Kurdish region. The arrival of cholera in the northern Kurdish region is particularly concerning due to the large numbers of Syrian refugees there, Legros said, pointing out that conditions in refugee camps are particularly conducive to the spread of the disease.
“Whether you put a refugee camp in Europe or in Nigeria or in Syria, the problem remains the same,” he said, pointing out that if people “don’t have access to safe water and someone contaminates the water and someone else drinks it, they get cholera.”
Although WHO has affirmed that the situation in Iraq is currently under control, the outbreak underlines the vulnerability of the mushrooming refugee population to such mass disasters. Hundreds of refugees have lost their lives during their hazardous journey to Europe while millions continue to live in pathetic conditions in refugee camps in countries bordering Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recently warned that around 100,000 people are on the move following a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive on Aleppo. Syrian refugees have increasingly lost hope of returning home and also sense that Europe’s doors will soon be shut “so they think ‘better get moving’,” news agencies quoted Louisa Vinton, a UN official in Macedonia as saying. With no end in sight for the Syrian crisis, an increasing number of refugees in the neighbouring countries have lost hope of building a new life, with jobs hard to find and their living conditions deteriorating. This is the main factor forcing them to flee to European countries.
People who have nothing to dream of could easily fall prey to extremist ideologies, which is what is happening in the region. The refugee crisis has betrayed the weaknesses of the European Union, in terms of developing a uniform strategy based on human rights values, while the unending Syrian conflict has jeopardised the credibility of the international community. The longer the war continues, the graver the consequences.
