[News] Palestine refugees from Iraq resettled in Chile

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Palestine refugees from Iraq resettled in Chile
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 8 April 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9447.shtml


DAMASCUS, 7 April (IRIN) - Thirty-nine Palestinian refugees from Iraq 
-- stuck at al-Tanf refugee camp in no-man's land on the Iraq-Syria 
border -- have been resettled in Chile.

"Until last year it felt like the doors were closed for moving the 
Palestinian refugees. The desert conditions at al-Tanf are extremely 
inappropriate for the refugees to live in. Finally a window of 
opportunity opened with Chile," said Laurens Jolles, head of the UN 
Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Syria.

The resettlement is the first of its kind since Palestinians fleeing 
violence in Iraq were first interned in tents at al-Tanf in May 2006. 
An earlier plan to resettle some of the Palestinians in Sudan was 
delayed after some of the refugees rejected the idea.

Since October 2007 al-Tanf has doubled in size from 351 to 733 
Palestinian refugees, following the tightening of asylum restrictions 
in Syria, which already hosts an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees.

Al-Walid camp on the Iraq side of the border is home to about 1,560 
Palestinian refugees. So far the UNHCR has resettled one family of 
eight with several sick children from the camp -- to Norway in August 
last year. A third camp near the border, al-Hol in north-eastern 
Syria, houses some 300.

The 39 refugees who flew to Chile from Damascus on 5 April included 
23 children. They have been resettled in La Calera, 130 kilometers 
north of Santiago, where local authorities are providing health care, 
education and Spanish classes. Chile has agreed to host 117 refugees 
in total and two more groups are expected to depart later this month 
to be resettled in San Felipe, north of Santiago and other 
neighborhoods in the capital.

Still stranded

Despite the resettlement in Chile, over 2,000 Palestinian refugees 
continue to deal with the harsh reality of life in the desert at the 
al-Tanf and al-Walid camps. Conditions in al-Hol in Syria are 
significantly better as the refugees have much freer access to Syrian 
goods and services.

As well as the daily threat of bites and stings from rats, scorpions 
and snakes, the refugees in al-Tanf have lived for years without any 
clear future ahead of them.

"One of the worst things for the refugees is that they are in a 
permanent state of 'waiting.' They are between borders and have no 
control over their lives. They are completely dependent on aid 
organizations and this is very disheartening," said Astrid Haaland, 
Iraqi Palestine refugees team leader for the UN Palestinian relief 
agency, UNRWA.

Almost half the refugees in al-Tanf are under 18. Many have developed 
asthma as a result of the desert conditions and are suffering from 
fevers, diarrhea and vomiting.

Although there are emergency doctors from the Palestine Red Crescent 
Soceity (PRCS) permanently on call at al-Tanf, treatment at a 
hospital is a three-hour ride away in Damascus where only critical 
cases are taken.

Despite the hardships, Jolles said the refugees at al-Tanf are well 
cared for. They are not short of material, food or water supplies, he 
said, and the UNHCR together with UNRWA, the UN Children's Fund 
UNICEF, the PRCS and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) have set up 
programs to help the refugees deal with the psychological trauma of 
their experiences in Iraq.

UNRWA set up a school in February 2007, hiring some of the qualified 
refugees as teachers and providing an education program which 
currently teaches over 100 children.

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and 
information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the 
United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or 
reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the 
<http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx>copyright page for conditions 
of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs.




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