RESIDENTS in the Makhmur camp in northern Iraq issued an urgent appeal for an end to an eight-month blockade yesterday, warning that people are dying because they cannot reach hospital for medical treatment.

They described conditions in the UN-administered camp as like “an open prison,” with the elderly and children being punished because of the intransigence of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The camp is situated between Erbil and Ninewah, in an area contested by the KRG, which controlled Makhmur between 2003 and 2017, and the Iraqi central government.

Makhmur Refugee Camp was established in the 1990s and is home to at least 12,000 Kurds, many of whom were forced to flee Turkey when their villages were among 3,000 that were razed to the ground, leaving around three million people displaced.

It has been subject to an embargo by the KRG since July last year with residents warning that medical supplies and other necessities are not getting through.

Soon afterwards it was hit by air strikes from Turkish jets who claimed to be targeting members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ankara flies regular sorties targeting the camp, which it insists harbours PKK fighters.

Earlier this month it was the target of an Isis attack, with armed Islamists engaging in a two-hour gun battle with camp security guards, killing at least one.

Camp resident Serhat Tas warned that people are not allowed to leave, including some with cancer who require hospital treatment.

“They are not taken to the hospital because of the embargo … Many people lost their lives due to not being taken into hospital,” he said.

Those injured in the recent Isis attack were also refused hospital treatment, including the father of Ahmet Acar.

“People are afraid there, in terms of their security, because Isis barbarians have no morals. Isolating the people in the camp is no alternative.

“Living in the camp is like living in an open prison. Necessary measures should be taken and the conditions of the camp should be improved,” he said.

The KRG insists the embargo is necessary after the killing of a Turkish diplomat in an Erbil restaurant last July.

It said restrictions on the movement of residents was temporary and would not apply to those with jobs, students or patients requiring hospital treatment.

The Makhmur camp council has made repeated calls for the lifting of the embargo and freedom of movement for all those living there, warning of a “collective punishment.”

But their requests continue to be refused by the KRG with the restrictions remaining in place for the past eight months.