President Saleh of Yemen, arriving in Riyadh, said that the Arab League summit has to tackle with a sense of responsibility the ordeal of the Palestinians living in Iraq, in light of the threats and violence they have been experiencing at the hands of militias and death squads.
The Yemen News Agency reports that a symposium organized by Kanan Association for Supporting Palestine called for Arab Leaders to alliviate the suffering of Palestinians in Iraq and sent a copy of the call to the UN Secretary General, Security Council and European Union. The Chairman of the Association, Yahya Saleh, said the symposium aims at shedding light on the suffering of the Palestinian refugees in Iraq within the framework of preparing for an international conference to protect the civil rights of Palestinian refugees in different countries.
Kristele Younes of Refugees International writes about the Iraq refugee crisis for the think thank Foreign Policy in Focus. She recommends that "Western countries, including the U.S., must agree to resettle particularly vulnerable groups, such as the Palestinians, without prejudice to their right to return to their country as recognized under international law." Kristele visited the border camps last November and heard first hand the testimonies of Palestinian refugees.
The Palestine House Educational & Cultural Centre in Ontario is fundraising to support Palestinians from Iraq being resettled in Canada under private sponsorship.
A report on minorities in Iraq, published today by the Minority Rights Group International, warns about the plight of the Palestinian community. It draws largely on reports by Human Rights Watch and UNHCR, so does not add any new information, but adds to the international concern that Palestinians are being exterminated and have no where to flee.
Today the European Parliament passed a resolution (by 74-0) on refugees from Iraq. The full text is here, and the extracts as below:
The Resolution notes that "the security of third-country nationals, stateless persons and particularly the approximately 34 000 Palestinian refugees... in Iraq has drastically deteriorated, and "(1) Urges Iraq's bordering countries to abide by their legal duty immediately to admit refugees, particularly those stranded at their borders and belonging to specially targeted minorities such as stateless Palestinians... (6) Asks the Member States and the international community, as a demonstration of international burden-sharing, to contribute to the resettlement of Iraqi refugees and stateless persons, including the Palestinian refugees from Iraq stranded in the region."
At the end of the debate on the resolution, Commissioner Jan Figel told the House that an aid package of €10.2 million in humanitarian aid for victims of the Iraq crisis was being provided through the ECHO humanitarian aid office. €6.2m would be for those outside Iraq and €4m for those inside the country.
Al-Jazeera interviewed Mokhtar Lamani, the former representative of the Arab League in Iraq who resigned last week protesting the absence of an Arab will to help Iraqis. On Palestinians he said: "The most important detail on this issue is that no Palestinian ever came to me while in Baghdad asking for protection in order to continue living in Iraq. In fact, all of them came to me asking for the league's help to get them out of Iraq to any Arab country. The reason for that is they [Palestinians] hold travel documents not passports. Most countries do not recognise this type of documents and require a proper passport to grant an individual a visa. We did raise the issue with Iraqi officials, they told us that everybody in Iraq is a target, not only the Palestinians."
Human Rights Watch today called on the international community, and the US in particular, to provide financial assistance to Syria to help it host the Palestinian refugees, and to share the burden of this refugee problem by offering third-country resettlement opportunities to Palestinian refugees in Syria. Under customary international law, Syria has a legal obligation not to return refugees to persecution or serious harm, and to allow asylum seekers fleeing widespread human rights abuses and generalized violence to enter the country, at least temporarily, to be screened for refugee status. Human Rights Watch urged Syria to abide by its legal duty to admit immediately the stranded Palestinians at its border. “It’s hard to understand why Syria has provided refuge to nearly a million Iraqi refugees but is shutting the door on hundreds of Palestinians also fleeing Iraq,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Syrian government’s mistreatment of these Palestinian refugees contrasts sharply with its declarations of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Consistent with respect for the right to return, Israel should respect requests by the UNHCR to allow those Palestinian refugees from Iraq with origins in Gaza to return to the Gaza Strip. Finally, Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government and the US-led Multi-National Forces in Iraq to take immediate steps to improve security for Palestinian refugees in Iraq and end discriminatory and abusive practices by Iraqi officials. Last year HRW published a detailed report, No Where to Flee, on the plight of the Palestinian community in Iraq.
The UK based Middle East Cultural Association and Iraq Solidarity Campaign have been monitoring the situation of the Palestinian community in Iraq for a few months on their Baqaa Camp blog, and today initiated a Declaration , signed by various organisations, calling for an end to the violence and protection of the Palestinians.
Today's editorial in the Dubai-based Khaleej Times argues: "Syria’s stand is that it has done its bit by taking in some 250 Palestinians in May, and that it’s the other Arab nations’ turn now. There’s merit in the argument; this is a collective responsibility. The Palestinians in Iraq need all our attention. The cause being so dear, this here is a call of duty for the governments in the region; they cannot afford to look the other way."
An Early Day Motion (EDM 709) has been initiated in the British Parliament by John Austin MP, and has been signed by 35 MPs so far: "That this House expresses its great concern for the safety and welfare of the Palestinian population in Iraq and for many of those who have fled; notes that since 2003, the Palestinian community in Iraq has faced escalating forms of insecurity, including evictions, discrimination, torture, kidnapping, targeted killings and shelling of Palestinian neighbourhoods, and that these attacks have come from both government forces and insurgents; draws attention to the numbers of Palestinians who have fled Iraq or who have been displaced internally; notes that borders with Jordan and Syria are now closed and that many refugees are stranded in makeshift, temporary refugee camps at Ruwayshid in Jordan, Al-Hol in Syria and in the border area of Iraq and Syria at Al-Tanf; notes that they are receiving little or no humanitarian aid or support and that their plight is desperate; asks the Government to urge the United Nations to intervene immediately to provide both aid and security; and calls upon the Department for International Development to give all possible assistance to UNHCR in this task and in its efforts to support the 20,000 Palestinians stranded in Baghdad."
Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Jordan and Syria are unwilling to take in Palestinian refugees, including more than 300 stranded in “no man’s land” on the Jordanian border in harsh desert conditions. He said, "They feel they’ve already paid their dues to Palestinian refugees."
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition in the US, has launched a campaign on behalf of Palestinians trapped in Iraq. They have produced a factsheet, photos from al-Tanaf camp on the Iraq/Syria border, and an action alert calling on people to:
