Speaking in London today, Dr Zryan Yones, a medical Doctor, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and former Minister of Health in Kurdistan, expressed his concern that nearly a million refugees in Kurdistan (Source: United Nations), have been suffering from hot temperatures of 50 degrees with no electricity or basic facilities such as running water. The refugees will soon also suffer the extreme effects of wet weather and freezing temperatures as they camp out in the open streets or in simple tents. In a country of 4.2 million people nearly a million are refugees which gives some scale of the enormous humanitarian crisis unfolding.
Dr Yones recently returned from Kurdistan where he tended to the medical needs of the refugees and he said that the situation with refugees was ‘overwhelming’. Their needs are for the fundamentals, of safety and security and the Kurdish government and Kurdish people have done this but assistance is now needed for medicine, food, clothing and protection against the harsh winter. ‘These refugees are not nomads; they have come from established homes and find themselves at the mercy of the elements having had to flee from ISIL’. He added: ‘Thankfully they came to a safe haven in Kurdistan but the imminent winter will cause even more tragedies unless help is given immediately.’
He explained: ‘In order to understand the situation with these refugees, one has to realise that from one day to the next they were displaced. These were settled families with jobs, farms, companies and normal lives and in a day or so they found themselves travelling on foot across inhospitable terrain to reach the safer areas in Kurdistan’. He concluded: ‘We want these refugees to know that the world is watching out for them and others affected so tragically by recent events; we want them to know that they are not alone’.
Dr Yones has established a website to allow companies and individuals to contribute to this life-saving refugee crisis. www.kurdistanrefugeeaid.org.uk
For further information contact:
Dr. Zryan Yones
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
Email: zryan.yones@gmail.com Mobile: +44 (0) 7871341964
Author: Jacqueline Purcell
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London Region
IPRA UK Chapter Chairman
Email: jacqueline.purcell@yahoo.co.uk
5th October 2014. London, UK.