Abstract
The current study explores the perceived quality of life of Syrian refugees who have entered the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Two hundred and seventy participants residing in refugee camps in the Erbil region in Kurdistan completed the WHOQOL-BREF, which measures Quality of Life (QOL) within four domains; physical, psychological, social relationships and environment. Syrian refugees in Kurdistan scored significantly lower for general population norms on physical health, psychological and environment QOL, and score significantly lower for physical health and psychological QOL for refugees in the Gaza strip. However, respondents in the current sample scored significantly higher on environment QOL compared to refugees in the Gaza strip, and significantly higher on all the QOL domains than those reported for refugees in West Africa. Finally, Syrian refugees in Kurdistan scored significantly higher than general population norms for social relationships QOL. The current findings provide the first report of QOL domain scores among Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan camps and suggest that social relationships and environmental QOL circumstances are relatively satisfactory, and that further investigation might be focused on physical and psychological QOL.
Highlights
The war in Syria has led to the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century
We report on the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) scores among Syrian refugees living in refugee camps in The Directorate of Erbil, Iraqi-Kurdistan
The current findings suggest the QOL among Syrian refugees in Kurdistan falls largely within a range of QOL scores that have been reported from other samples
Summary
According to United Nations Refugee Agency figures, over 2.5 million people have fled the Syrian conflict, entering as refugees neighboring countries of Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recorded that by the end of July 2012, 9,503 Syrians had registered as refugees in Iraq who have left Syria for a number of political, economic and social reasons. By the end of February 2013, this number had increased over 10-fold to 102,447 (UNHCR, 2013). By February 2014, the figure stood at 225,548 (UNHCR, 2014a) and continues to increase. The majority (around 97%) are registered in the Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq, in and around the cities of Duhok (109,979 registered refugees), Erbil (84,881 registered refugees) and Suleimaniyah (25,134) (UNHCR, 2014b). When Syrian refugees first began arriving in 2012, most registered in the Directorate of Duhok, near the Peshkhabour
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