UNHCR increasingly concerned for border refugees

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is becoming increasingly concerned over the fate of 188 Palestinian refugees stranded at the Syrian/Iraqi border for two weeks. The Syrian authorities denied them entry, fearing this will encourage more to follow suit and put pressure on their resources. "They are living in the desert and they are worried," UNHCR representative in Syria, Abdel-Hamid El-Ouali said on Tuesday. "They said they don't want our help but just to enter Syria," he added. The group of 188 Palestinians refugees, including four pregnant women and 29 children, have been stranded for about a fortnight in no-man's-land at the Tanf border checkpoint on the Iraq-Syria border, UNHCR headquarters in Geneva said. El-Ouali said that one of the "pregnant women was transported" to Damascus for delivery and she was still in the hospital there. These refugees fled Iraq for the border following a decision by the government of Syria earlier this month to accept a first group of 287 Palestinians. They had been stranded for two months at the Iraq-Jordan border before being given entry by Syria as Amman refused them entry. Palestinians have been leaving Iraq due to harassment and discrimination from local populations who resent the fact that they were favoured under Saddam Hussein’s regime and given special benefits such as housing subsidies. El-Ouali said the refugees' condition was not good as they are living in the desert, adding that they had also threatened to start a hunger strike if they were banned from entering Damascus. UNHCR held talks with the Syrian government but there was no "promise" to let the refugee in, according to El-Ouali. The refugee agency is providing the refugees with food and water, and medical treatment is covered by The United Nations for the Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). "A doctor visits the refugees every other day,” he said. In addition, more than 60 tents and several mobile toilets have been erected for them. El-Ouali said that the other group of Palestinians refugees, who were moved to the El-Hol camp in northeastern Syria on 9 May, were doing well. "Their condition is better than when they were stranded on the Iraqi-Jordanian borders,” he said.