London, February 03: The United Nations refugee agency closes a makeshift camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border, relocating the last of the Palestinians that had been stranded there for nearly four years.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in cooperation with Syria, transferred the last 60 residents of the Al-Tanf camp Monday morning, and said that they will be housed temporarily at another refugee camp, Al-Hol, inside Syria.
Al-Tanf is a makeshift camp located on a narrow strip in a no-man’s land. It was set up in May 2006 for Palestinian refugees fleeing alleged persecution in Iraq as no country in the region would be willing to accept them.
One of the relocated refugees expressed happiness with the UN action and said they had suffered a lot under harsh desert conditions, extreme temperatures, sandstorms, floods, fire risks and difficult access to medical services.
He added that they had been “forced to leave with no document in hand” after living 60 years in Iraq. “We just want a place that welcomes us and recognizes us as human beings,” he said.
Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR’s deputy representative in Syria, said, “Today we were able to close this camp and this is a very important step and achievement in responding on a humanitarian basis to the situation of people who were stranded there as a result of fleeing persecution.”
“However, there are still hundreds of Palestinian refugees from Iraq who are in Al Hol camp in the north-eastern province of Hassake and they also need the same compassion and understanding,” he noted.
The UN agency offered no details as to the circumstances of the alleged persecution of the Palestinian refugees in Iraq.
——-Agencies