Damascus opens doors to Palestinian refugees on border

Some 244 Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom had been stranded at the Iraq-Jordan border for nearly two months after fleeing violence in Iraq, have been allowed to cross into Syrian territory. “I’ve been at the border since 19 March. I’m extremely glad to find a country to live in at a time when all the Arabs have rejected us. I’m sure I will live in Syria safely,” said Iyhab Tim, 30, a Palestinian from Baghdad who left Iraq with his wife and a child after being subjected to “harassment and continuous threats”. Nine busloads of Palestinians, 181 of whom had been camping since mid-March at the Trebil border point just inside Iraq, rumbled across the Tanef crossing on Tuesday, some 300km northeast of Damascus, under the auspices of the United Nations Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). The Palestinians were received at the border by the head of the General Administration for Palestinian Arab Refugees in Syria and a three-man delegation from Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Territories. Two Syrian ambulances and a food-laden truck were also awaiting the refugees at the border. The group, which includes about 41 women and 70 children, had earlier been prevented from entering Jordan despite repeated appeals. During a visit to Damascus on 20 April, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said that the Syrian leadership had agreed to allow Palestinian refugees in Iraq fleeing persecution to enter Syria. After hearing of the decision, an additional group of 54 Palestinians that left Baghdad on 22 April was allowed to join the initial 181 refugees. “I left Baghdad because of the lack of security in Iraq,” said Jamal Abdul-Naser, 25, a Palestinian from the Iraqi capital. “I received several warnings and threats demanding that we leave.” For the past five days, another group of 35 Palestinians, mostly men, has also been camping on the Iraq-Syria border, hoping that it, too, will be allowed entry into Syria. It was not yet clear, however, whether Damascus would allow the entry of additional Palestinians. Ahmed Nayef, 37, a Palestinian resident of Iraq, described the situation in Iraq as “insecure and unstable”. After being shot in the leg last month and receiving death threats, Nayef set out for Syria with his wife and three children. They are currently camping on the border, hoping to gain entry into Syria. The Syrian Committee on the Transfer of Stranded Palestinians, recently instituted by UNHCR and UNRWA, will provide the refugees with food packages in addition to temporary accommodation at the al-Hol camp in al-Hasakah province, some 700 km northeast of Damascus. The camp, built to accommodate 20,000 people, was initially set up in 1991 for Iraqi refugees fleeing the regime of Saddam Hussein. It is expected that the refugees will later be transferred to UNRWA camps. According to UN statistics, there are some 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq and more than half a million in Syria, 30 percent of whom live in refugee camps.