Wednesday, February 20, 2008

IRAQ: No solution in sight for Palestinian refugees stranded at border


UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"BAGHDAD, 19 February 2008 (IRIN) - Palestinian refugees trapped in three makeshift camps along the Iraqi-Syrian border are living in very precarious conditions and their situation is deteriorating by the day, a senior Palestinian diplomat said on 18 February.

“The Palestinian refugees… along the Syrian border are experiencing a very grave social, health and humanitarian situation,” Dalil al-Qasous, the Palestinian chargé d’affaires in Baghdad, told IRIN.

“As they enter their third year of living on the borders, they continue to face low desert temperatures during the winter and [now] the coming sandstorms… and no solution is in sight,” al-Qasous said.

The three camps are: al-Walid camp on the Iraqi side of the border where about 1,560 Palestinians have sought shelter; al-Tanf in no-man's-land between Iraq and Syria which currently accommodates some 489; and al-Hol camp in al-Hassekeh Governorate, just inside Syria, which was set up in May 2006 and home to over 300......"

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