AMMAN — Although the outflow of displaced people from Mosul is still low, UNHCR and other UN agencies are prepared to receive large numbers of the displaced as an operation to free the city from Daesh continues, UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said on Monday.
At a press conference in Amman that followed his regional visit to Iraq and Egypt, Grandi said that so far, there are about 7,500 displaced people that have moved from the outskirts of Mosul to other locations.
“They have been assisted and we have around 1,000 people that have crossed into northeastern Syria” and have been received in a camp in Hasakeh governorate.
Still, he noted, there is no movement from the city of Mosul itself.
“I observed preparations for possible large outflow of civilians from Mosul as a result of the offensive that is currently being conducted against those armed groups that are controlling the city of Mosul, the so-called Islamic State.”
“The preparations are proceeding well,” the UN official said, adding that UNHCR is going to have by two to three days 30,000 tents in Iraq, which are enough for 150,000 people, “and more [tents] are coming”.
He explained that the key issue in Mosul was to find enough sites to be able to accommodate the expected flow out of Mosul. “But negotiations are going on this respect with the government of Iraq and Kurdish Regional Government.”
He noted that Iraq already has a population of displaced persons of over 3 million, of whom almost one million have taken refuge in the Kurdish region.
“So, it is a complex situation; a burden for the country. It is something that we also need to watch very carefully and bring enough resources to address.”
Another key issue regarding Mosul, he added, will be “how the offensive, the military action will be conducted in Iraq itself... It will depend a lot on the very good commitments made by the government of Iraq and Kurdistan, to do it in a way that respects civilians and protects them”.
He also expects that the Mosul events may have security repercussions that would affect the rest of the country, depending on how the military action develops.
“I received many strong messages of concern from the Jordanian leadership” regarding this, and the situation in Syria as well.
