UNHCR to Register Thousands of Palestinian Refugees in Iraq
The United Nations Refugee Agency said on Saturday it would start registering next week over 80,000 Palestinian refugees
in Iraq who have been subjected to harassment since the fall of al-Bath’s regime, following the US- led invasion of Iraq
on April.
“This is the third and by far largest group of refugees to be registered with the UNHCR,” the United Nations High
Commissionar for Refugees said in a statement, adding Syrians and Iranian Arabs had already been registered.
“Previously, all three refugee groups were registered with and protected by the government. In the absence of a regular
refugee protection system, UNHCR now fills in.”
The agency said Palestinians currently living in a squalid tented camp in Baghdad’s Haifa Sports Club would be the first
to be registered.
“The next ones will be refugees who were also evicted from their houses but are being accommodated with relatives and
friends.”
After the fall of Baghdad to the US-led coalition on April 9, many Palestinian families were forced out of homes they
thought were permanent, some under the threat of arms.
About 200 other families also received an ultimatum to leave their homes after school exams at the end of June.
The United Nations refugee agency said that landlords in Baghdad have ordered some 800 Palestinian families -- or about
4,000 people -- from their homes since May.
Palestinian refugees lived in those apartments for cheap prices, UN officials said. However, it seems the lands owners
wanted to rent their properties for higher prices.
Many of Baghdad’s Palestinians now live in two refugee camps -- one located in a no-man’s land at the Jordanian border,
the other at the Haifa Sports Club facilities in Baghdad.
UNHCR has asked the US-British coalition forces occupying Iraq to let the refugees move into empty government buildings.
There are no accurate statistics on the size of the Palestinian refugee community in Iraq. Some estimates say there are
nearly 34,000 Palestinians living in Iraq.
Many of the refugees have lived in Iraq since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war after they were expelled from their houses by
Zionist paramilitaries. Others moved in during the 1991 Gulf War.