Palestinian family stranded after Iraq refuses re-entry

Dubai: A Palestinian woman, who came to the UAE for urgent brain surgery, cannot return to her home in Iraq with her family because Baghdad does not want them, her husband has said.

Her husband, Raffat Al Jamal, has been running between various Arab embassies and consulates since late June trying to leave Dubai as their visit visa here also has expired.

In a true life situation similar to the hapless traveller, Viktor, in the movie Terminal, Al Jamal said the crew of an Iraqi aircraft stopped them from boarding.

Airline staff told him that according to instructions from Baghdad no Arab can enter the country without a visa. This apparently is a bid to halt the influx of insurgents.

Illegal

He told Gulf News: "I told them I am an Iraqi. I was born in Iraq and am living in Iraq since a long time ago. My family immigrated from Palestine in 1948."

Two of his children are with his wife in Abu Dhabi, where she underwent surgery to remove shrapnel lodged in her brain at Al Mafraq Hospital. Al Jamal and his two other children make the rounds of the consulates here daily.

The family came to Dubai in March from Baghdad for surgery after she was wounded in an explosion near her house in Iraq.

After Al Jamal and his family were stopped from boarding the flight he went to the Iraqi consulate in Dubai and the embassy in Abu Dhabi, but was told to get a visa. Asked where he can get a visa, they said it has to be issued from Iraq through the Ministry of Interior.

"This is no longer with the Iraqi foreign ministry," he was told.

Al Jamal then went to the Palestinian consulate and he was told to go to Syria.

"We are now illegals here and have to quickly find some country to go to," he said. His visits to the Egyptian, Sudanese, Jordanian, and other Arab embassies have not been fruitful.

Brigadier Mohammad Al Merri, Director-General of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD), told Gulf News Al Jamal is not stuck at Dubai airport as reported in some media.

"When Al Jamal applied for a visa here, he submitted an Iraqi passport. He did not inform us that he is a Palestinian with Iraqi documents. We are aware that the Iraqi government is not letting Palestinians enter Iraq again. This is not the first time we have faced such a problem," he said.

"I will discuss the matter with the Iraqi consulate today [Sunday] to find a solution," he said adding that Al Jamal will be allowed to stay in the UAE until his problem is resolved.