GENEVA (Reuters) - Nearly one hundred Palestinians who spent the last six years stranded between Iraq and Syria will be moved temporarily to Slovakia, pending resettlement elsewhere, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
The 98 refugees, who were living in “appalling conditions” in makeshift camps near the desert border, will be housed in northeastern Slovakia from August, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
“They will stay at the new center for up to six months while their final resettlement to other countries is arranged,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing.
Romania opened a similar transit center last year, and the United States, Chile, and several European countries have taken in many of the thousands of Palestinians who were marooned after the start of the U.S.-led war.
Palestinians were seen to receive favorable treatment under the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and faced targeted attacks after he was ousted. Thousands fled Iraq in 2003 but were not allowed into Syria, leaving them in the three desert camps that the UNHCR is now seeking to close.
As of late May, there were more than 2,700 Palestinians in the Al Walid, Al Tanf and Al Hol camps, all of whom the UNHCR is hoping to relocate to new locations by the end of this year.
Palestinians moved to Iraq in three waves in 1948, 1967 and in the 1990s, and were given subsidised housing and the right to work. Saddam gave them assistance and portrayed himself as a defender of the Palestinian cause.
Before the 2003 invasion, the UNHCR estimated there were 34,000 Palestinians in Iraq. Redmond said 10,000 now remain in Baghdad, many of whom face ongoing threats. Palestinians were listed as especially vulnerable in the UNHCR’s latest assessment of Iraqi conditions.
Deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone is in Iraq this week to review the agency’s operations and aid provided to returnees.
In talks with senior officials including vice president Tareq al-Hashemi, he urged the government to engage more with Iraqi refugees who have fled the country and to include them in national reconciliation efforts, according to Redmond.
UNHCR continues to advise host governments that central Iraq remains dangerous and refugees should not be sent back to that region. Refugees may be returned to northern and southern Iraq on an individual basis.
More than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees remain outside of the country, mostly in Syria and Jordan, while another 2 million are displaced within their homeland. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Richard Balmforth)
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