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UNHCR hails arrival of refugees from Iraq

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UNHCR plans to launch major repatriation soon
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hailed the first group of Iranian refugees to repatriate from Iraq under the auspices of UNHCR this weekend. Their return comes under an agreement signed in March 2001 between the refugee agency and the governments of Iran and Iraq. "This is a positive and significant development in the right direction," UNHCR deputy head of mission for Iran, Bo Schack, told IRIN from the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday. "After many years in exile, the refugees in Iraq have now been told by the Iranian authorities that they can come home without fear and that their rights will be recognised." Schack's comments follow Saturday's arrival of 125 refugees, including some 21 families, at the Iranian border crossing of Khosravi in western Kermanshah province. UNHCR staff in Iraq, led by chief of mission in Baghdad, Daniel Bellamy, accompanied the returning refugees to the border. Upon their arrival in Iran, the returnees were met by officials of Iran's Bureau for Alien and Foreign Immigrant Affairs (BAFIA) and transported to a nearby transit camp. Those who did not have an immediate destination - property or relatives - would be able to stay at the transit camp until they identify a more permanent destination. UNHCR has been working closely with both the Iraqi and Iranian authorities on the matter and Saturday's movement follows a series of recent meetings by the bilateral Iran/Iraq Commission on Humanitarian Affairs in the Iraqi capital that have also advanced the voluntary repatriation. Some 8,000 individuals have applied to repatriate from Iraq under the auspices of the voluntary programme, with Iranian officials approving applications of 480 families thus far. The returnees are permitted to take up to US $1,000 out of Iraq with them. Saturday's returnees had five truckloads of personal belongings, plus several private vehicles. Approximately 23,000 Iranian refugees have been in Iraq since the 1980 to 1988 Iran/ Iraq war. Of these, an estimated 16,000 are ethnic Kurds living either in the Al-Tash refugee camp or close to the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. A further 7,000 Iranian Arabs live in southern Iraq. Most have been living in well-equipped camps, which have become defacto ' villages'. Iranian authorities say they will recognise any educational qualifications the returnees received in Iraq as well Iraqi birth and marriage certificates. Exit fees for foreign nationals would be waived in the case of Iraqi women married to Iranian men. However, it was not clear if the same would apply to the reverse scenario should it present itself. Although no official amnesty for the Iraqi caseload has been announced, Iranian authorities have verbally assured both the returnees - during meetings with them in Iraq - and UNHCR that, except for breaches of common law, no legal action would be taken against any returnees. "UNHCR welcomes those assurances and encourages the Iranian authorities to stand by them," Schack said. He noted, however, that the agency in Iran does not have access to these returnees in the same way that they would in all other repatriation operations. "We continue to discuss this with the Iranian authorities," he explained. Meanwhile, in a parallel campaign, voluntary repatriation from Iran to Iraq has been underway for several years now. Between 1994 and the end of June 2002, a total of 27,259 Iraqi Arabs returned to Iraq from Iran. Between 1999 up until the end of June, a total of 16,855 Iraqi Kurds returned. Iranian government figures estimate there are some 220,000 Iraqis in the country. BAFIA has not requested material assistance from UNHCR for the new programme. Any assistance which may be provided by the refugee agency is likely to be directed towards extremely vulnerable cases.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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