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Making it safe for people fleeing violence in Iraq

by MAG | @MAGsaveslives | MAG (Mines Advisory Group)
Thursday, 26 June 2014 11:56 GMT

Kalak camp is temporarily housing people who've fled fighting between government troops and the militant armed group ISIS (or ISIL).

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* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

MAG is delivering urgent safety messages to help protect those fleeing Mosul from the dangers of landmines and other explosive weapons.

 The thousands who've escaped the violence in Iraq's second biggest city, and fled to the Kurdish Region of Iraq, are particularly vulnerable to the mines and unexploded ordnance littering what is for them unfamiliar territory.

The internal Green Line that separated the Kurdish region from areas under the control of Saddam Hussein's Government was heavily mined prior to the 2003 war, while air strikes and fighting on the ground during that conflict led to further contamination from explosive weapons.

So far, MAG has given emergency safety information to more than 3,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Erbil and Dohuk governorates, with another 5,500 people reached indirectly.

Our teams have been working since June 16 at the Kalak transit camp and Khazir checkpoint around 40km west of Erbil, and at the Garmawa IDP camp and Dohuk IDP registration centre.

In addition, a MAG technical team will make 89,200m² of land safe in Zummar, Dohuk to enable another camp to be established.

For more on MAG’s work in Iraq and around the world please go to www.maginternational.org.

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