Sudanese refugees depart Iraq for resettlement
Briefing Notes, 16 December 2008
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 16 December 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
A group of 97 Sudanese refugees, mainly from Darfur, who have been stranded in a makeshift camp in the desert in Iraq since 2005, left this morning for Amman, Jordan, from where they are scheduled to fly this evening to Romania. In Romania they will be housed in a new Emergency Transit Centre in Timosoara while they wait for their resettlement applications to be processed. UNHCR would like to thank the governments of Jordan and Romania for their cooperation in making this movement possible.
The group, which is currently in Jordan, is scheduled to depart tonight on a special flight from Marka Airport in Amman to Romania, accompanied by UNHCR staff. It will be followed shortly by another 42 Sudanese refugees who are expected to leave Iraq next month.
The group fled Sudan in the late 1980s and since their departure from Sudan conditions in Darfur have seriously deteriorated. The refugees have had little or no contact with their families in Sudan. They fear returning to their country, where they would find themselves in a situation of internal displacement.
The refugees suffered abuse, blackmail, eviction and assaults by militias following the 2003 downfall of the Saddam Hussein regime. A total of 17 Sudanese were killed between December 2004 and February 2005. Because of this targeting by the insurgent groups, the refugees tried to flee Iraq but were not successful. They became stranded in the K-70 camp outside Al Rutbah town, in the Al Anbar desert, some 75 km east of the Jordan/Iraq border. Here they were subject to severe weather conditions and harassment by militias. UNHCR has delivered humanitarian aid to the group, which includes women and children, while trying to find a durable solution for them.
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An alternative for those who cannot go home, made possible by UNHCR and governments.
A relevant handbook on the reception and integration of resettled refugees.
Iraqi Refugees in Jordan
The UN refugee agency has launched a US$60 million appeal to fund its work helping hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people. The new appeal concludes that unremitting violence in Iraq will likely mean continued mass internal and external displacement affecting much of the surrounding region. The appeal notes that the current exodus is the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948.
UNHCR has warned that the longer this conflict goes on, the more difficult it will become for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and the communities that are trying to help them – both inside and outside Iraq. Because the burden on host communities and governments in the region is enormous, it is essential that the international community support humanitarian efforts.
The US$60 million will cover UNHCR's protection and assistance programmes for Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey, as well as non-Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people within Iraq itself.
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Iraqi Refugees in Jordan
Crisis in the Central African Republic
Little has been reported about the humanitarian crisis in the northern part of the Central African Republic (CAR), where at least 295,000 people have been forced out of their homes since mid-2005. An estimated 197,000 are internally displaced, while 98,000 have fled to Chad, Cameroon or Sudan. They are the victims of fighting between rebel groups and government forces.
Many of the internally displaced live in the bush close to their villages. They build shelters from hay, grow vegetables and even start bush schools for their children. But access to clean water and health care remains a huge problem. Many children suffer from diarrhoea and malaria but their parents are too scared to take them to hospitals or clinics for treatment.
Cattle herders in northern CAR are menaced by the zaraguina, bandits who kidnap children for ransom. The villagers must sell off their livestock to pay.
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Crisis in the Central African Republic
Bonga Camp, Ethiopia
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For Bonga's 17,000 Sudanese refugees, life goes on despite rumblings in the region. Refugee children continue with school and play while their parents make ends meet by supplementing UNHCR assistance with self-reliance projects.
Cultural life is not forgotten, with tribal ceremonies by the Uduk majority. Other ethnic communities – Shuluks, Nubas and Equatorians – are welcome too, judging by how well hundreds of newcomers have settled in after their transfer from Fugnido camp in late 2002.
Bonga Camp, Ethiopia
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The Struggle To Go To School
t's one of the hardest choices Iraqi refugee families have to make -- whether to send their children to school or to work. Even though Syria has opened its classrooms to Iraqi students, a growing number of refugee families simply cannot afford to send their children to school. UNHCR has launched projects to ensure that more Iraqi children access education, including remedial learning programmes for those who have missed years of class. For the protection of those interviewed, names have been changed and faces masked.
"Experience Darfur" in Trafalgar Square
On June 17, an exhibit dubbed "Experience Darfur," opened on Trafalgar Square, in London. The square was turned into a mock refugee camp for a day to highlight the plight of hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
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