In a teahouse deep in the heart of Irbil bazaar, forlorn men gather around metal tables and speak animatedly.

Walid, 55, and Rabiya, 60, (not their real names) are two of more than 30,000 Iraqi Arabs who have fled violence in Anbar province for Iraqi Kurdistan in the face of renewed fighting between the Iraqi government and the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The childhood friends are currently holed up in a $17 (£10) a night hotel in Irbil, each sharing a room with up to six family members and steadily working their way through their savings – but, they happily admit, they are among the lucky ones.

"We were able to drive to Iraqi Kurdistan with our families and something in our pockets. We are lucky," said Rabiya.

A total of 300,000 Iraqis – more than 50,000 families – have been displaced by the conflict in Anbar, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).

Many of those have moved to other towns and villages within Iraq, but thousands have headed to Iraqi Kurdistan, which has been spared the violence in the south and become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds housed in sprawling camps on the outskirts of Irbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya.

The extra burden on Iraqi Kurdistan has made an already serious problem even more acute, says Falah Mustafa, head of the Kurdistan regional government's department of foreign affairs.

With the stream of refugees only likely to increase, Mustafa is urging not only the international community to come forward, but also the government in Baghdad.

"We have over 250,000 [Syrian] refugees. We also have 250,000 Iraqis that have fled the violence in the last couple of years and 2,000 [members] of the Christian community who have fled to the region because of violence. Then there are 30,000 who have fled in Anbar province," Mustafa said.

"The KRG does not have the capability to deal with all these needs at the same time. This is a rough winter season. We need the federal government to move forward and we need to have the attention of the international community through agencies and NGOs and donor countries."

Peter Kessler, working with UNHCR in Irbil, told the Guardian that more than 6,000 Iraqis were staying in hotels, motels and rented summer houses in Iraqi Kurdistan – and most of them would have to leave once the resorts began to fill for the summer season.

"A UNHCR team visited a small motel in Nawrouz, which has capacity to host seven families, but was overcrowded with more than 450 people and three to four families sharing one apartment," he said.

"[They] reported that their resources had already been exhausted and they would not be able to pay next month's rent."

The UN has refurbished a former camp for Syrian refugees in Baharka but the government has not yet given the order to open the site, he added. The UNHCR also said that housing Iraqi refugees in camps was "not the preferred option, as it may prolong displacement".

Meanwhile, hostilities in Anbar province have increased.

In nearby Suleiman Pek, insurgents were said to have occupied the town and burned its town hall to the ground.

Walid, for his part, does not expect to be going home any time soon. The former teacher will soon begin looking for work and, besides, he has heard from neighbours that his house in Falluja has been destroyed.

"We have abandoned everything due to the violence. I have no idea about the future. We have no hope. Falluja is finished," he said.