UNHCR concerned over Palestinian refugees in Iraq

December 23, 2006

Geneva - The Geneva-based UNHCR on Friday expressed concern over the conditions of 15,000 Palestinian refugees residing in Iraq under constant fear.

The UN body said that 41 of those refugees were stranded at the Iraqi-Syrian borders after fleeing for their lives. Some of them do not have passports while others had expired IDs, it added.

The concern was voiced after Palestinian refugees in Iraq, who have been living there for more than 50 years, were facing growing danger of murder, arbitrary arrest and daily threats and attacks on the part of armed local militias ever since Iraq came under American occupation in 2003.

For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement issued a statement in Gaza strongly denouncing the daily targeting of Palestinian refugees in Iraq.

It described such attacks as "systematic war crimes" launched by "alien militias" that only served American-Zionist policy of annihilating the Palestinians.

The Movement held the Iraqi government responsible for the persecution of Palestinians in Iraq and urged the neighboring Arab and Islamic countries to shoulder their ethical and humanitarian responsibility towards Palestinians trapped at the borders.