UNHCR pleads for life-saving medical evacuation of Palestinian children in Iraq
Briefing Notes, 29 June 2007
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 29 June 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR is making an urgent plea for the immediate evacuation of at least a dozen seriously-ill Palestinians, mostly young children stuck in Baghdad or in a makeshift camp at Al Waleed on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria. Without evacuation and life-saving medical help, they could die or suffer lifelong complications. We currently have 12 cases in urgent need of medical evacuation, the youngest just 15 months old.
You may recall that on Tuesday we highlighted the urgent needs of a few children in Al Waleed camp – home to 1,071 Palestinians – suffering from Hodgkin's disease, a hole in the heart and vascular problems as well as a young man with severe diabetes who is losing his eyesight. We have also identified a 2-year-old with cerebral palsy who has very low immunity, is in urgent need of physical therapy and has stopped eating. Another child, a 13-year-old girl suffering from a spinal injury, will be permanently paralysed from the neck down unless she gets treatment soon. The girl's mother died a few years ago, her father was murdered in January and her home was burned by militia. In Baghdad, there are other urgent cases, including a 15-month-old boy with spinal problems who is in danger of paralysis from the waist down, and a 14-year-old boy who has had 13 surgeries but suffers from severe urinary and bladder problems. And there are more.
UNHCR and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) have been trying everything to provide proper medical care but this is very difficult in the dusty border camps and volatile Baghdad. There is a refugee doctor in Al Waleed camp but he cannot cover all medical needs. UNHCR continues to receive reports from Baghdad of Palestinians who refuse to go for medical care because they are afraid for their safety. We know of some people who refused to seek medical attention for fear of attacks and later died in their homes as a consequence.
A humanitarian solution is urgently needed for the remaining Palestinians – 1,450 of whom are living in dire conditions at two border camps, and up to 13,000 still living in Baghdad from an original population of 34,000 in 2003. Those remaining in Iraq have no access to another country, and no communities to flee to inside Iraq. In the meantime, they continue to be targeted.
The internally displaced of Iraq
Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, over 1.5 million people remain displaced throughout Iraq, including 500,000 who live in dire conditions in settlements or public buildings. For these very vulnerable people, daily life is a struggle with limited access to clean water, electricity, heath services or schools for their children. Many families who live illegally in informal settlements are at risk of eviction. Most of the internally displaced fled their homes because of sectarian violence which erupted in 2006 following the bombing of the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra. UNHCR works with the Government of Iraq on projects such as land allocation; shelter assistance and house reconstruction to try to find long term solutions for the displaced.
The internally displaced of Iraq
Al Tanf: Leaving No Man's Land
In February 2010, the last 60 Palestinian inhabitants of the squalid camp of Al Tanf on the Syria-Iraq border were ushered onto buses and taken to another camp in Syria.
Al Tanf camp was established in May 2006, when hundreds of Palestinians fleeing persecution in Iraq tried in vain to cross into Syria. With no country willing to accept them, they remained on a strip of desert sandwiched between a busy highway and a wall in the no-man's-land between Iraq and Syria.
Along with daily worries about their security, the residents of Al Tanf suffered from heat, dust, sandstorms, fire, flooding and even snow. The passing vehicles posed another danger. At its peak, Al Tanf hosted some 1,300 people.
UNHCR encouraged resettlement countries to open their doors to the Palestinians. Since 2008, more than 900 of them have been accepted by countries such as Belgium, Chile, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The last group of Palestinians were transferred to Al Hol camp in Syria, where they face continuing restrictions and uncertainty.
Al Tanf: Leaving No Man's Land
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie meets Iraqi refugees in Syria
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie returned to the Syrian capital Damascus on 2 October, 2009 to meet Iraqi refugees two years after her last visit. The award-winning American actress, accompanied by her partner Brad Pitt, took the opportunity to urge the international community not to forget the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees who remain in exile despite a relative improvement in the security situation in their homeland. Jolie said most Iraqi refugees cannot return to Iraq in view of the severe trauma they experienced there, the uncertainty linked to the coming Iraqi elections, the security issues and the lack of basic services. They will need continued support from the international community, she said. The Goodwill Ambassador visited the homes of two vulnerable Iraqi families in the Jaramana district of southern Damascus. She was particularly moved during a meeting with a woman from a religious minority who told Jolie how she was physically abused and her son tortured after being abducted earlier this year in Iraq and held for days. They decided to flee to Syria, which has been a generous host to refugees.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie meets Iraqi refugees in Syria
Iraq: Harsh Living
There are more than 350 settlements for internally displaced people in Iraq.The living conditions in most of them are dire.
Iraq: Brick by Brick
In Iraq, where more than 2 million people remain displaced, UNHCR has launched a home renovation project to assist returns.
Angelina Jolie in Iraq
During a day-long visit to Baghdad, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visited a makeshift settlement for internally displaced people in the Chikook suburb of north-west Baghdad where she met with four families displaced from the district of Abu Ghraib and from the western suburbs of the Iraqi capital.
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