DOHUK, IRAQ. With the Iraqi authorities unable to cope with sudden overwhelming numbers of internally displaced people, many are stranded in unfinished buildings or makeshift tents.

 

A cold wind blows through the open concrete frame of an unfinished building block, meters away from a busy highway on the outskirts of Duhok in Kurdish-governed Northern Iraq.

 

Children run around playing, jumping up the mud-smeared steps to the first floor, where some women are washing muddy clothes in a plastic tub. A skinny boy sits in front of a tent made of plastic sheets, looking down at the ground floor, where a group of sombre-looking men gather around a smoking fire.

 

Since the beginning of August, 44 Yazidi families from the war-torn towns of Sinjar and Alqosh have settled on the first and second floors of this twelve-storey concrete skeleton. They came here after fleeing their houses as IS approached, barely escaping with their lives and unable to bring any of their belongings. They soon discovered the Kurdish Regional Government was unable to deal with the enormous influx of people in need of aid, leaving them abandoned to a life of misery and disillusion.

 

According to the UNHCR, 1.5 million people are displaced in Iraq. Almost half of them have sought refuge in the relatively safe Kurdish region in the north of the country, but the immense flow of people in the past four months has been too much to manage. Lacking a clear strategy, sufficient budget, and space, the authorities are unable to provide enough shelter and aid to help them all.

As a result, 35% of the IDPs live in alternative accommodation, such as schools, mosques, and churches. Those who can afford it rent space, and some have families who can help. But many live under miserable conditions, dependent on the help of locals and occasional other benefactors.

 

The 248 displaced people in the unfinished building bloc in Duhok are working closely together to make it through the winter, but they say they need food, warm clothes, and money to do so. So far, they don't know when or if help is coming.

 

 

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