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First death registered among Iranian-Kurd
refugees at Iraq-Jordan border
4.10.2007
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October
4, 2007
Jordan-Iraq border, -- A Kurdish woman from a
group of 193 Iranian-Kurd refugees who have been
stranded at the border of Jordan and Iraq for the
past two and a half years became the first fatality
there after she died on 2 October as a result of a
disease complication, according to refugees at the
camp and international and local relief
organisations.
Jordanian doctors said that the victim, 46-year-old
Sharkat Palani, suffered from diabetes and a
psychiatric illness. She left behind 11 children,
ranging in age from nine to 23, and a husband. They
all live in the same refugee camp in what is
referred to as "no man's land".
"We asked the ICRC [International Committee of the
Red Cross] to help bring her back to the Jordanian
Red Crescent [JRC] hospital in Amman where she was
treated a month ago, but we were told they could not
do it without the medical advice of a Jordanian
doctor," Khabat Mohammadi, acting spokesman for the
Iranian-Kurd refugees, said.
On 26 August, ICRC Jordan in collaboration with the
country's authorities succeeded in having Palani
transferred to a JRC hospital in Amman for medical
care. The woman stayed there until 18 September when
doctors approved her discharge on the basis that
they could not do anything more for her at that
stage of the illness. They provided her with
medication to take once back at the camp.
"We did all we could and provided the patient with
the necessary medicines for a follow-up back in the
camp," Dr Atef Awad Alah from the JRC hospital said.
But according to Mohammadi, ever since she returned
to the camp and despite the medication, her
condition started to deteriorate severely over the
past two weeks, prompting refugees to launch a new
call for help to the ICRC and the UN Refugee Agency
(UNHCR).
Tragic case
"This is a very tragic case. It is also a tragedy
what these refugees have been going through. But
without the permission of our Jordanian counterparts
we are not allowed to transfer any refugee to a
Jordanian hospital," Kim Gordon-Bates of ICRC Jordan
said.
However, the Amman-based UNHCR Iraq office managed
on this second occasion to transfer Palani to a
hospital in the Iraqi city of al-Qam, about 7km from
the border, where she received further medical
treatment.
"We took all available measures to continue with her
medical care. We feel very sorry about her death,"
Anita Raman, UNHCR Iraq reporting officer, said.
Background
The Iranian-Kurd refugees arrived at the Iraq-Jordan
border after fleeing al-Tash refugee camp in Iraq's
western Anbar governorate, following clashes there
between insurgents and US forces in January 2005.
After being denied entry to Jordan, they remained on
the Iraqi side of the border in an area which UNHCR
and its partners say is difficult to access because
of insecurity.
The refugees' request for resettlement in Europe or
North America has been denied by UNHCR, which has
instead offered to move the group to an official
camp in Erbil, capital of the northern Iraqi
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The refugees
rejected the offer, citing fear for their personal
safety after some of them were reportedly attacked
by militants in 2001 in Kurdistan.
Out of a total of 193 Kurd-refugees living at the
border, 106 are under the age of 18.
irinnews org
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