Jordan Times
Monday, April 11, 2006
Judeh says HRW interfering in sovereign, political rights
AMMAN — Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh on Monday responded sternly to a recent call by Human Rights Watch (HRW) for Jordan to allow more than 100 Palestinian refugees at the Iraqi border into the country.
“They shifted emphasis from concern for human rights, perhaps, to politics, interfering in the sovereign and political rights of every sovereign nation,” Judeh told reporters at a weekly press briefing.
Around 130 Palestinian refugees are currently stranded on the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan after fleeing violence in the neighbouring country, according to HRW.
Unlike Iraqi nationals, the New York-based group said, these Palestinians cannot enter Jordan on tourist visas.
Judeh said “it's unfair to expect Jordan to have an open door policy.”
“Iraq is surrounded by five countries. I find it very strange that the emphasis is on Jordan to open up its borders to anybody and everybody,” he added.
“HRW needs to question the motivation and the reasons behind certain NGOs' active encouragement to the Palestinian refugees in Iraq to get to the Jordanian border, in specific.”
Judeh thought that “HRW should have perhaps directed its concern towards international institutions for the protection of refugees in the countries in which they happen to be settled in.”
Last week, HRW Director of Middle East and North Africa Division Sarah Leah Whitson said “the international community should assist Jordan and resettle these Palestinians in third countries acceptable to these refugees.”
Judeh said Jordan has done its “fair share at a huge financial cost over many decades in terms of accepting refugees and settling them.”
“If you look at the track record of Jordan over more than five decades, in terms of accepting refugees, the track is spotless,” he added.
Judeh suggested that HRW take up this refugee issue with the Iraqi authorities, who he said are “ultimately responsible for their protection and for their safety and their well-being.”
But an Iraqi embassy official recently told The Jordan Times that the issue is “an internal matter between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.”
UNHCR and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society provided humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
Amnesty International (AI) accused Jordan of violating international law by closing its border to the refugees.
According to AI, the Iraqi minister of displacement and migration was reported to have said that “Palestinians were not welcome in Iraq and should leave the country.” Since the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, Palestinians were being singled out, AI said.
Around 34,000 Palestinians live in Iraq, where they enjoyed privileges under Saddam's regime, according to Agence France-Presse.
HRW officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.