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Iranian Kurdish refugees put more pressure
on UNHCR
29.6.2006
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AMMAN (IRIN) —
Two of the 198 Iranian Kurdish refugees stranded on
the Jordan-Iraq border since January 2005 started a
“permanent” hunger strike on Sunday.
The move was intended to put more pressure on the UN
refugee agency, UNHCR, to resettle them all in a
third country, according to Khabat Mohammadi, the
refugees’ spokesperson.
This came a week after the entire group of refugees
— including women and children — went on a one-day
hunger strike on World Refugee Day (June 20) to draw
international attention to their request.
The refugees’ latest action will once again
highlight the difficulties faced by UNHCR’s office
in Amman in providing medical assistance to the
group.
According to the agency, the refugees are in an area
that is officially neither on Iraqi nor Jordanian
territory.
Additionally, because of a lack of security along
the Jordan-Iraq border, “access by UNHCR and
assistance to the refugees has been sporadic and
unreliable,” according to a statement released on
Monday by UNHCR’s office in Jordan.
UNHCR sources said the agency was negotiating with
different entities to find the most expedient manner
to assist the refugees, especially in terms of
providing medical assistance to the two refugees on
hunger strike.
The agency continued to insist that “resettlement is
not a right” and can only be possible in a third
country if there is a clear need, no alternative
solution in the country of asylum and [is] dependent
on an offer from a country willing to resettle the
refugees.
The refugees recently rejected an offer by UNHCR to
facilitate their return to Iran, their country of
origin, because they claim to be political opponents
of the government in Tehran.
The Iranian Kurdish refugees arrived at the Karama
border crossing between Jordan and Iraq after
fleeing Al Tash refugee camp in Iraq’s western Anbar
Governorate, following clashes there between
insurgents and US forces in January 2005. They
remain on the Iraqi side of the border, an area
prone to harsh weather conditions.
irinnews org
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