Palestinian refugees in Iraq stuck in "Catch 22"

By Ammar Alwan

TANAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Hameda Um Firas has lived most of her 70-odd years as a refugee -- now she is stranded in a tent again at Iraq's border with Syria where hundreds of Palestinians have fled to escape violence in Baghdad.

"We escaped in fear of our lives. My granddaughter was decapitated by a missile attack and our sons were killed, we fled Iraq to spare our lives," she said, barely able to contain tears of anger at Arab countries she said should be helping.

"We are living in a miserable state in this camp," she said as children played in dusty lanes between white tents with clothes hanging to dry on the guy ropes.

A 25-year-old who gave only his first name, Alaa, fled to the camp at the Tanaf border crossing after gunmen killed one of his brothers. "All my family are separated now, I know nothing about my brothers and where they are," he said.

Sectarian violence and bomb attacks are driving up to 50,000 Iraqis a month from their homes, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which says close to 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq and another 2 million abroad.

UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said there were around 34,000 Palestinians in Iraq in 2003, before the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and around 15,000 remain.

The Palestinians came in three waves in 1948, 1967 and in the 1990s, and were given subsidized housing and the right to work -- privileges compared to other refugees and a source of tension with some Iraqis forced out to make way for them.

Saddam gave them assistance and portrayed himself as a defender of the Palestinian cause.

While the numbers are relatively small, van Genderen Stort said the Palestinians were in a uniquely difficult situation because without passports they can not go to Syria, Jordan or other neighboring countries where many Iraqis have fled.

"The difference with Palestinians is they have nowhere to go," she said. "A lot of them have expired identity papers which the Iraqis are not extending because it's not their priority."

"They're in a Catch-22. They're targeted, they have death threats, they have these raids, but they can't flee and when they flee they either have to do it illegally or they are stuck at the border," she said.

Sunni Arab militant groups including al Qaeda have claimed some of the worst bomb attacks in Iraq, including many targeting Shi'ites, and foreign Arabs are viewed with deep suspicion by many Iraqis, particularly in Shi'ite areas.

"Palestinians are seen as insurgents or trouble makers ... because they're Sunnis," said van Genderen Stort.

BAGHDAD RAID

The UNHCR said on Friday it was "deeply disturbed" by a raid on Wednesday on a Baghdad compound housing Palestinians in which at least one Palestinian was killed and several more detained.