Poland in Iraq

The primary objectives of the visits were the survey of the conditions of living in the camps and the inspection of the medical support and services rendered by the Polish Medical Mission and funded by the Polish Aid – the Ministry of Foreign Affaird of the Republic of Poland.

The living conditions of the inhabitants of the Hassan Sham may be considered as extremely difficult. The camp was created in October 2016 primarily for person seeking refuge as a result of the war with the Islamic State. From its creation it has been accepting persons suspected of ties to the Islamic State, wives, children and other persons of kin of the IS members. These person are usually subject to persecution by the federal Iraqi authorities, they are also not welcome in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and their potential return to places of origin might mean trouble with the local militias. Given the above described factors the camp is being managed as an almost completely closed facility. The inhabitants are not entitled to leave in order to work. The children do not have access to educational system. That is due to the fact that the personal identification documents are withheld by the Kurdish security force – Asaish. Currently there are 1225 families staying at the camp (a total of 5619 persons). It is noteworthy that the Hassan Sham camp is currently the only facility still accepting new inhabitants. Since 1 April 2023 the Polish Medical Mission has been running a Primary Health Care Center at the camp funded by the Polish Aid (MFA of Poland). The primary focus of the Center is on providing medical care services to women (particularly pregnant) and children. The Centre provides gynaecological, paediatric and general medical care. An emergency intervention room is also available for urgent cases. The Center also has its own pharmacy providing the patients with medication prescribed by the doctors.

On 27 July the employees visited the Baharka camp. It accommodates over 6000 IDP’s. Unlike at the Hassan Sham camp these persons are allowed to leave. An analogical medical center has been operated by the Polish Medical Mission at the camp for the past few years. The additional feature of the center at the Baharka camp is the dental care.

Despite the fact that the regular warfare (against IS) has ceased as of the end of 2017, UN estimates that 1,17 million IDP’s are remaining in camps, informal settlements and among the host society (Kurdish). In the face of a full scale war in Ukraine the focus of the international society, including media and aid organizations shifted to the eastern Europe and of course Ukraine itself, while reducing its engagement in other parts of the world, including Iraq. It is all the more commendable that thousands of inhabitants of the camps in the Iraqi Kurdistan may still access the health care services provided by the Polish Medical Mission funded by the Polish Aid.