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AMMAN, May 30 (AFP) - 9h42 - Hundreds of
refugees, including Iranian Kurds, who have been
stranded in a desert no-man's land on the
Jordan-Iraq border since 2003, have been moved to a
camp in Jordan to await resettlement in a third
country.
A total of 743 refugees were moved Sunday to the
Ruweished camp, for "humanitarian and security"
reasons, a spokesman for the state-run Hashemite
Charity Organisation told AFP.
"Their move will make it easier for us to provide
them with relief assistance and bring them closer to
representatives of foreign countries which could
provide them with permanent resettlement," the
spokesman added.
Omar Abdel Aziz, a spokesman for the Iranian Kurds,
said the group also included around 100 refugees
from Sudan, Egypt, Somalia, Iraq and Palestinians
who had fled the US-led war on Iraq in 2003 to the
borders with Jordan.
"Praise be to God that we are now in a secure and
stable area where rule of law prevails," Abdel Aziz
told AFP in a telephone interview from Ruweished.
He said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
is trying to secure resettlement for the refugees in
a third country, adding that the Iranian Kurds
refuse to return to Iran or to Iraq.
"A delegation from New Zealand is now in Ruweished
and they are interviewing 22 families," Abdel Aziz
said, adding that other possible destinations
include Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Britain.
Jordan, already home to 1.7 million Palestinian
refugees, has refused to take in more refugees for
demographic and economic reasons.
AFP
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