UNHCR conference makes no decision on Palestinians

IPS reports that no decision had been reached by the end of the UNCHR Geneva conference on the status of the refugees who were in Iraq prior to the invasion, especially that of some 15,000 Palestinians, whose plight High Commissioner Antonio Guterres described "the most dramatic and frustrating situation we have at the moment," he said.

Civil society sources said that the United States is trying to interest Latin American governments in granting asylum to groups of Palestinian refugees from Iraq. The U.S. delegation at the conference admitted that its government has already made contact with the Brazilian authorities towards that end.The Middle East Times says that a US official attending the conference would not be drawn into saying what seemed to be implicit - that Palestinians are not being considered for possible resettlement under the expanded American allotment of 25,000 places for this year - but said, "don't forget, there are also Sudanese refugees in Iraq, too." The same official said America would consider any cases for resettlement submitted through the UNHCR.