Searching for Solutions for Palestinian Refugees Stuck in and Fleeing Iraq
All our lives we’ve been refugees. My family fled, we fled. My family stayed in tents. Now we’re staying in tents. They saw war. We saw war.(1)
Palestinian refugees have reached Iraq in three waves; 1948 (Nakba), 1967 (occupation) and 1991 (Gulf War). The majority of Palestinians in Iraq are 1948 refugees who originate from the villages of Ijzim, Jaba’, and Ein Ghazal as well as other villages south of Haifa and the Galilee. The refugees still have strong ties with their relatives who now live in the West Bank camp of Jenin, Nour Shams and al-Fara’ refugees camps in the West Bank as well as in Israel.
Since the American invasion and occupation of Iraq in April 2003, an increasing number of Palestinian refugees are fleeing Iraq. Palestinians refugees have become victims of the general violence as well as persecution on the ground of nationality, including eviction from their homes, arbitrary detention, kidnapping, torture, rape, extra-judicial killings. They have had difficulties renewing their residency permit on a two months basis as recently required.
The UNHCR estimates that over 10,000 Palestinian refugees have left Iraq, but for a few exceptions, their whereabouts and legal status remain unknown to UN agencies. The lack of information on and assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees and Iraqis fleeing Iraq is largely imputable to the difficulties of working in Iraq and financial constraints. Thus many Palestinian refugees are left with little choice other than the dangerous option of trafficking and smuggling. Some Palestinian refugees from Iraq have been reported by UNHCR offices in locations as far as India and Thailand. It is estimated that about 15,000 Palestinian refugees may still be in Iraq, mainly the most vulnerable who are unable to flee. Almost all of the Palestinian refugees in Iraq have expressed the desire to leave.(3)
Despite the difficulties, UNHCR has followed the situation of Palestinians refugees and has issued a number of press releases expressing strong concern and urgently calling for at least a temporary solution for Palestinians refugees from Iraq. At the end of January, UNHCR wrote that “right now, it’s an untenable situation for the Palestinians and it is deteriorating on a daily basis.”(4) A few days later, UNHCR urged “the international community, including neighboring and resettlement countries, to help find a humane solution for these refugees who are persecuted inside Iraq and have nowhere to go.”(5) A few weeks later, the head of UNHCR’s Iraq Support Unit, Andrew Harper, said “how much more will have to happen before the international community and the countries in the region respond positively to calls to have Palestinians relocated out of Iraq?”(6)
UNHCR and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have also urged the American occupation forces and the Iraqi government to protect and ensure the security of Palestinian refugees. In light of the ongoing crisis, it is doubtful whether the Iraqi government and American forces are able and/or willing to protect the refugees. The PLO has advocated three realistic options; (1) protection in Iraq; (2) an internal flight alternative within Iraq; (3) relocation out of Iraq on a temporary basis until the right or return to their homes of origin can be realized. The PLO has also called upon UNRWA to register Palestinian refugees in and from Iraq.
UNHCR has in the past approached the Israeli authorities to allow Palestinian refugees to enter the occupied Palestinian territories, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has said it is willing to welcome the refugees, but Israel, who controls the borders, has so far refused to discuss this option. UNHCR has also tried to facilitate the entry of Palestinian refugees to Jordan and Syria and find relocation space in other Arab states, but to no avail. As Rafeef Ziadah wrote, “once again, Palestinians see how Arab regimes offer nothing more than the rhetoric of Arab summits. When it comes to protecting Palestinians these regimes consistently abdicate responsibility.”(7)
According to the 1965 Casablanca Protocol and international law, Palestinian refugees have the right to depart from the state where they reside according to their interest, travel documents, work, education, housing and return to their homes of origin.(8) Moreover, states are bound to respect the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ which stipulates that “no Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”(9)
Jordan has refused to allow Palestinian refugees to enter its territory, except for a limited number of Palestinians (approximately 400) married to Jordanian nationals. The only Palestinian refugees remaining in the Jordanian-Iraq border area are those stuck in the Ruweished camp, located 50km from the border in Jordan. UNHCR wants to close the Ruweished camp because of the dire living conditions there and is actively looking for relocation opportunities for the 97 Palestinian refugees remaining in the camp. The government of Syria also has allowed entry of a small number of Palestinian refugees only. It has denied entry to the majority of the refugees on the ground that they do not have proper travel documents and that the Arab League has not yet taken any decision as their future of the refugees. The small number of Palestinian refugee officially hosted in Syria with the help of the UN are in the Al Hol camp (around 300 persons), a UNHCR camp serviced by UNRWA, and they have not yet been issued personal documents by the Syrian authorities. Other groups of Palestinian refugees are stranded on the Syrian-Iraqi border at the al-Tanf border crossing point (around 320 persons) in miserable conditions. Palestinian refugees in the Ruweished camp, Al Hol camp and al-Tanf fall under the mandate of UNHCR although they are located in UNRWA area of operations.(10)
Another 356 persons are stranded in the ‘No Man’s Land’ area between Syria and Iraq, and at least 520 others are stuck in El Waleed on the Iraqi side of the border. An unknown and probably greater number of Palestinian refugees are also believed to have entered Syria with forged documents and are now left without proper papers. The Arab League has not yet taken any decision on the future of Palestinian refugees from/in Iraq. The issue is, however, on the agenda of the next Arab League summit scheduled to take place at the end of March.
Meanwhile, UNHRC continues to look for a place to secure the refugees’ lives and has turned to other states such as Canada, Australia and Latin American countries to accept Palestinian refugees. Some states have already taken in a small number of Palestinian refugees; Canada received 55 Palestinian refugees from the Ruweished camp, the United States has agreed to take 16 refugees, while Chile is currently considering taking between 30 to 200 Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian refugee organizations insist that solutions to Palestinian refugees remain temporary and on a humanitarian basis, until they can voluntarily return to their homes of origin and repossess their property according to international law and UN Resolutions, notably UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security Council Resolution 237. Similarly, UNHCR affirms that temporary stay in the OPT or neighboring countries as well as resettlement in third countries “should be seen as a temporary solution for Palestinians, without jeopardizing their right to return.”(11)
Endnotes:
(1) Renee Montagne, “Palestinians Among Refugees from Iraq War”, National Public Radio News, 27 February 2007.
(2) See Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2003, Bethlehem: Badil Resource Center, p. 36.
(3) see “Palestinians in Baghdad demand to leave”, Ma’an News, 12 February 2007 and UNHCR, “Aide-Memoire, Protecting Palestinians in Iraq and Seeking Humanitarian Solutions for Those Who Fled the Country,” Geneva: UNHCR, December 2006.
(4) UNHCR, “Palestinians in Iraq”, Briefing notes summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson at today’s Palais des Nations press briefing in Geneva, 24 January 2007.
(5) UNHCR, “Palestinians/Iraq”, Briefing notes, summary of what was said by the UNHCR spokesperson at today’s Palais des Nations briefing in Geneva, 30 January 2007.
(6) “Police raids spread panic among Palestinians,” Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), Baghdad, 18 March 2007.
(7) Rafeef Ziadah, “Palestinian Refugees of Iraq,” The Electronic Intifada, 11 March 2007.
(8) Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinian Refugees [“Casablanca Protocol”], League of Arab States, 11 September 1965.
(9) Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, Article 33.
(10) UNHCR, “Aide-Memoire, Protecting Palestinians in Iraq and Seeking Humanitarian Solutions for Those Who Fled the Country,” Geneva: UNHCR, December 2006, p.4.
(11)
Ibid, p.6.