Iraq: Concerns are growing over the fate of refugees at temporary camps on the border with Jordan. Michael Jansen reports
More than 100 additional refugees arrived yesterday at a temporary camp in no-man's land between Jordan and Iraq, swelling its inhabitants to 1,050.
Among them are 500 children, infants and older people. "Conditions at the makeshift border encampment are rapidly deteriorating. Some of the new arrivals have serious medical problems that require treatment in hospital. One woman is pregnant and expected to deliver in the next few days," according to Mr Peter Kessler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Ten days ago the encampment on the strip of land between the frontier posts at Karama was inhabited only by an Iraqi man whose wife and son were killed during the war, his two little girls and a handful of Palestinians.
These people have been waiting for more than two weeks to move 60km westward to the tent camp established near the town of Ruweished by UNHCR and the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organisation at a cost of $1.2 million.
Half of the residents of the windswept Karama encampment are ethnic Iranian Kurds who fled a refugee camp 120km west of Baghdad inhabited by 120,000 Iranian Kurds for 20 years. Most were employed in the nearby town where their children attended school. Some Kurds say they were threatened by local Iraqis, others claim they ran out of food.
A second group of 60 middle-aged and elderly Iranians, recognised as refugees by various European and North American governments, is also waiting in no-man's-land for entry into Jordan in order to travel onwards to their countries of asylum.
The third, smaller group of Iranians seems to consist of members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, the People's Warriors, an armed faction opposed to Tehran's clerical regime and given bases and support by the former Iraqi government.
Mujahedeen military camps near the border with Iran were bombed by US aircraft during the war.
About 130 Palestinians, longstanding residents of Iraq, turned up at the camp over the past few days.
They say armed Iraqi gangs have been attacking Palestinians living in Baghdad's Bijii and Balediyat neighbourhoods, as well as the al-Hurriya camp, which shelters a number of nationalities. They say men have been threatened with death and women with rape if they do not leave.
A number of Jordanians married to Palestinians and several Syrians have also been forced to stay at the encampment.
Yesterday, staff from the UN agency which looks after Palestinian refugees were at the frontier site, registering Palestinians.
The sudden exodus of these people seems to show that non-Iraqis are no longer welcome in Iraq, a country previously hospitable to Arab and non-Arab refugees and economic migrants.
The UNHCR representative in Jordan, Mr Sten Bronee, met senior government officials on Saturday to alert them to the plight of the people at Karama. UNHCR has requested that Jordan allow them to go to the refugee camp at Ruweished. A week ago the Jordanian government promised that the refugees, then 200, would be admitted to the kingdom but no progress has been made.
Since the war began, only six Iraqi refugees have been allowed into Jordan. Prior to hostilities, the kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNHCR, which stipulated that both Iraqis and third-country nationals would be granted temporary protection at camps designed to provide shelter for thousands. More than 1,000 third-country nationals have been granted entry, 829 have been sent home, leaving 222 in the Ruweished camp. Jordan appears to be unwilling to grant the same right to stateless Palestinians and Iranians.
Jordanian officials refuse to comment on the situation. Mr Omar Mufti, speaking for the Interior Ministry, said, "It has come from a very high authority ... that we ... are not to comment or give any piece of information on this subject. Even the minister himself is not authorised to comment on this."
Dr Anis Kassem, an international lawyer, said, "As a country adjacent to a conflict area, Jordan is obliged ... under general principles of equity, to provide assistance and protection to these people."