Palestinian refugees from Iraq seeking resettlement in Sudan
12 March 2009
Bethlehem - Ma'an - A delegation of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraqi-Syrian border visited Sudan recently to discuss possible resettlement there.
Thousands of Palestinian refugees (those expelled from Palestine in 1948 and their descendants) who had been living in Iraq were displaced by the 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq. As many as 2,500 have been living in tents in the desert border area between Iraq and Syria.
The deputy head of the Refugees Affairs Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Muhammad Abu Baker, said that refugees from Al-Walid Refugee Camp went to Sudan in hopes of moving there.
Abu Baker told Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad that four representatives of the refugees met with a committee that is working on arranging the move to Sudan. The committee includes representatives of the PLO, the Sudanese government, and the UN High Commission for Refugees.
The delegation also met with an aide to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, Uthman Isma'il, and looked at examples of the mobile homes the Palestinians could move into in the capital, Khartoum.
Abu Baker explained that this visit came in application for a resettlement agreement between the PLO, Sudan and the UN. Under the proposed terms of the agreement the Palestinians would reside "temporarily" in Sudan.
According to Abu Baker, the Sudanese government promised the Palestinians that they will enjoy full civil rights in Sudan, including the right to employment. "The Palestinian refugees moving to Khartoum will live as Sudanese people do," the report said.
Most of the refugees hold Palestinian passports. Some who hold Iraqi passports will be able to keep their documents until a special Sudanese ID can be issued for them.
