Refugees in Iraq have been the most complicated humanitarian crisis in the region, and has had an impact on all sectors of life. The areas most affected by the crisis are located in the north of the country, mainly around Mosul. This area has witnessed extremely harsh humanitarian crises for the last three decades after thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and villages for safety. Mosul has been the site of many conflicts across different fronts that have resulted in the displacement of thousands of families and the disruption of access to primary education for thousands of children. Most refugees are currently staying in refugee camps with minimum support and severe living conditions. Mosul and the surrounding areas were liberated from the terrorist groups but refugees are still in their camps with no foreseeable plan of returning home. Addressing the requirements of the support needed by people, mainly children, within such a context of uncertainty is challenging in the areas where the camps are. Thousands of children in the camps have been deprived of their rights to access education. The 1948 United Nations declaration of human rights clearly states in Article 26: ‘Everyone has the right to education’, but thousands of Iraqi refugee children are deprived of their basic education rights and are trapped in poverty with no hope for the future. Using the conceptual frameworks and theories of this symposium, lessons learned from the refugee crisis in Iraq are presented around how to effectively assess the needs of the refugees, establish a workable system to support their situation in all aspects of life, and achieve a sustainable education for them in new partnerships between Universities, school teachers, students and families.

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