UNHCR, Jordan still making efforts to resolve the issue of refugees stranded near Iraq border

As ten months passed since the end of the US-led war on Iraq, efforts to solve the problem of nearly 1,600 people who escaped the war to Jordan are still continuing.

The fate of those people, who live in two camps and include Palestinians, Iranian Kurds, Iraqis and some few others from different nationalities, is the centre of ongoing negotiations between the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on one hand, and Amman and other capitals on the other.

Among those stranded in Al Ruweished camp, some 70km from the Iraqi border, nearly 400 Palestinians, whom the UNHCR representative in Jordan, Sten Bronee, described negotiations to allow them to go back to the countries whi-ch issued them travel documents, mainly Egypt and Lebanon and Iraq as "difficult" ones.

While Bronee hoped that those who have closer links in Egypt might be able to travel there, he added that it is not only a question of allowing those Palestinians to go back.

It is also a question if those who hold Iraqi travel document feel they can go back there, taking into consideration the current conditions in Iraq, in reference to the lawless situation and the lack of basic services, mainly water and electricity supplies.

Also, the UNHCR is trying to arrange for the return of those Palestinians to the Palestinian territories. "The Palestinian authority has indicated an early positive reaction. We are still waiting for a reaction from the Israeli authority," Bronee told Gulf News.

Apart from the Palestinians, there are currently nearly 60 Somalis and Sudanese, who fled Iraq during the war, living in Al Ruweished camp. They are waiting for resettlement as refugees in western countries, after some went back either to their countries or back to Iraq during the past few weeks.

In order to provide UNHCR with more time to make necessary travel arrangements for those who met the requirements of refugees' status in other countries and to find solutions for others, Amman announced earlier this month its acceptance to keep Al Ruweished camp open "for humanitarian reasons" till the end of March of 2004.

Amman has announced last year that it would close the camp, which it and UNHCR established before the war, by the end of 2003.

While Jordanian officials point out to the Jordanian decision last August to allow some 420 people, who constituted the families of 86 Jordanian women married to Palestinian men, to enter the kingdom from Al Ruweished camp, they repeatedly say Amman will not receive more refugees.

"Jordan will not be again an area for large numbers of refugees" Minister of State and government spokesperson Asma Khader told Gulf News recently. She was referring to the waves of refugees fled to Jordan during the 1948, 1967 Arab-Israeli wars and after the 1990 Gulf crisis.

Khader added those refugees in the no-man land's camp, between Jordan and Iraq, are "under the responsibility of the UNHCR, which is supposed to deal with their situation and find solution to their problem."

On its part, the UNHCR said it is working on improving the conditions of the camp. "We have improved the actual physical condition of the camp," said Bronee. "So far, we have moved it to a new area, which is higher so it is less prone to flooding.

Last Thursday, Jordan announced the movement of residents of the camp to a new one. Also, "we are engaging in an active approach to try to find solutions for these people either for some of them back in Iraq," or resettlement in third countries, if they meet the requirements, Bronee continued.

The majority of the nearly 1,200 people living in the no-man's land's camp are Iranian and kurds. There are also tens of Iraqis, many of whom were members of the banned Baath Party. None of them expressed readiness to go back to Iraq because of their fears of retaliation.

"The situation (in Iraq) is going from worse, to worst" said 41-year widower Azhar Yousef, who has been living in the camp with his mother, brother, sister, and two children since last May.

"Return to Iraq for what? First I was member of the party, (but) not from the leading members and even before the fall of Baghdad, I was chased," he added.

Azhar's brother added that many Iraqis prefer to stay in the camp in the desert area rather than going back. "The thing that is available and most of the people are living for is security, which is available (in the camp) 24 hours a day… There is no insecurity," said 38-year-old Ali.