Jordan Times
Monday, March 26, 2006

Palestinian border refugees receive assistance

AMMAN — The 88 Palestinian refugees who attempted to enter Jordan illegally from Iraq last week are now receiving humanitarian assistance from UNHCR and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.

UNHCR said that its office in Jordan sent a team to assist the refugees late Thursday night, providing about five to seven days' worth of food as well as mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets, stoves and lanterns which were transferred to the Iraqi side of the border.

The refugees, including 42 children, fled Baghdad last Saturday evening and were refused entry into Jordan.

Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh told The Jordan Times last week that entry for the group into Jordan was impossible because they only carried Iraqi travel documents and no passports.

The Jordan-Iraq border, which was closed on Monday, reopened Thursday morning, because the issue of the refugees was resolved, Judeh added.

“We are trying to ensure that the basic needs of the group, such as food and water, are met,” Anne-Marie Deutschlander, a senior protection officer for UNHCR in Jordan, said in a statement.

“The group is, however, now in an area inside Iraq which makes it extremely difficult for us to have access or intervene.”

UNHCR estimates about 34,000 Palestinians live in Iraq, with 23,000 registered as refugees with UNHCR in Baghdad.

A spokesperson for one of the refugees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that for about four days, before humanitarian assistance from UNHCR and the Iraqi Red Crescent, the refugees relied on the goodwill of some truck drivers crossing the border who donated water, food, clothes and even sleeping mats.

The spokesperson added that the group fled Iraq to escape violence.

“In Baghdad, there were explosions, killings and horrible conditions. No one knows who is murdering the people,” he said.

“We want the UN to adopt us,” the spokesperson added.

Some segments of the Iraqi population viewed Palestinians in Iraq as having received special treatment during former president Saddam Hussein's regime, according to UNHCR, resulting in a backlash against Palestinians there.

“With other agencies on the ground we are very closely monitoring the situation, as we hope the panic will not spread and lead to more Palestinians leaving the capital,” Emmanuel Gignac of UNHCR's Iraq Support Unit in Geneva said in the statement.

A spokesperson for the refugees told The Jordan Times last week that the group wants a permanent solution and is seeking help from the UN to be eventually resettled in another country.