Syrian-Kurdish refugee families are seen at the Quru Gusik (Kawergosk) refugee camp, 20 kilometres east of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on Saturday (AFP photo)
On Sunday afternoon, authorities reopened the Peshkhabour border at the Tigris River, which had been closed since mid-September, allowing 2,519 Syrians to cross into the country by barge, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.
Iraqi authorities decided to close the border in September after facing an exodus of some 60,000 Syrians, UNHCR said.
Authorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan region had told the UN agency they had now decided to allow Syrians claiming they did not want to stay in the country to visit for up to seven days, allowing them to stock up on supplies before returning.
Some 210,000 Syrians have been registered as refugees in Iraq since the conflict in their country began in March 2011.
