Palestinian Refugees in Iraq , and Whom under Threat of Deportation Back to Iraq

7/30/2019 Palestinian Refugees in Iraq , and Whom under Threat of Deportation Back to Iraq

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The Board o Directors o the Euro-Mid Observer orHuman Rights expresses its proound thanks to allthose who contributed to this report, particularly:

Amani Senwar

Executive Director

Ihssan Adel

Head o Legal Department

Dana Mahmoud Oslo

Juan khaear - Baghdad

Field investigator

Pamela Bailey

Nermine Mahmoud Hanaf

Ramadan Rezeq

Editors/Prooreaders

Wase Qadah

Design Director

Chairman

Dr. Ramy S. Abdu


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Introduction

The security situation in Iraq continues to be complicat-

ed nine years ater the Americans rst invaded in 2003.

One o the most adversely aected segments o Iraqi

society is Palestinian reugees, who have been victim-ized by waves o hatred rom armed militias supported

by orces within the Iraqi police and military.

Actions against Iraqs Palestinians in Baghdad (partic-

ularly the Baladeyat area) and other cities have taken

the orm o kidnapping, torture, detention without trial,

neighborhood bombardments, house raids and threat-

ening propaganda (delivered through pamphlets and

shouted over megaphones).

These practices have orced many Palestinians to eeto reugee camps on Iraqs borders with Syria andJordan. Frequently, due to extreme restrictions onthe rights o Palestinian reugees in Iraq and border-

ing countries, the keep moving -- seeking opportuni-ties or asylum in countries outside the Arab world.


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As a result, says UNHCR, the number o Palestinianresidents in Iraq has dropped rom 35,000 beore theAmerican invasion to ewer than 7,000 by the begin-

ning o 2012. Meanwhile, as documented in this report,violence continues against the ew remaining Pales-tinians in Iraq.

This report also discusses the legal situation o Pales-tinian reugees who hold Iraqi documents. In 1950, theIraqi government inormed UNRWA (United Nations

Relie & Works Agency) that it would assume respon-sibility or protecting the Palestinian reugees on itsland; thus, ollowing the collapse o the Baghdad re-gime in 2003, they ound themselves without the pro-tection o any political or international organization.

Iraqi Palestinians are acing persecution elsewhere as

well. At this writing, 25 Palestinians with Iraqi traveldocuments are living in cruel humanitarian conditionsin Norway. Ater their asylum petitions were rejected,some are acing deportation orders and they now livein ear o meeting the same ate o earlier Palestinianreugees who were stopped at the Iraqi border andtreated inhumanely by the Iraqi military. Those still inNorway have no opportunities or employment andreceive a very low standard o health care.

This report consists o two chapters. The rst exam-ines the legal and on-the-ground situation o Palestin-ian reugees living in Iraq, including the:

History o Palestinians in Iraq and the role o

UNRWA.


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Targeting o Iraqs Palestinians ater the Ameri-can invasion in 2003.Current situation o Iraqs Palestinians through

mid-2012.Legal rights and challenges o Iraqs Palestinians.

The second chapter explores the plight o Palestinianswith Iraqi documents who have sought asylum in Nor-way the most common destination or those eeingthe unrest ollowing the 2003 war.


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Chapter One:Palestinian Reugees in Iraq

The security situation o Iraqs Palestinians

Arrival in Iraq

In 1948, Iraq welcomed hundreds o Palestinian ami-lies who sought asylum there during the Arab-Israeli

war. However, unlike Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Iraqdid not enter into an agreement with the United Na-tions Relie and Works Agency or Palestinian reugeesin the Near East (UNRWA), which was established in1949 to register Palestinian reugees and provide re-quired assistance. Instead, Iraq assumed responsibil-ity or the relatively small number o Palestinians whosought asylum within its borders.

Many more ed to Iraq ollowing the Arab-Israeli war

o1967 and the Gul War in 1991, when Yasser Araats

support or Saddam Husseins invasion o Kuwait caused

many Arabs there to eel hostile towards the Palestin-

ians. Still others came simply looking or a better lie.

By the time the American military invaded Iraq in 2003,the number o Palestinians living in the country had

reached 35,000, according to UNHCR. The majority set-

tled in the capital, Baghdad, concentrating in residen-

tial areas such as the Baladeya, Mashtal, Salam, Doura,

Banawen, Gazaleya and Horeya districts. Despite the

perception that Palestinians in Iraq had special privi-

leges, they oten lacked such basic necessities as reshwater, a sewer system and sae, modern housing.


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Hatred and violence since 2003

The all o Saddam Husseins regime in April 2003 trig-

gered a wave o violence that ravaged virtually everyethnic and religious group in Iraq, ueled by dynamics

ranging rom political rits, to sectarian clashes, to sim-

ple criminal intent. Palestinians are among these victims.

Driving hostility against the Palestinians in Iraq is thewidespread perception among the majority Shia pop-

ulation that as Sunnis, they received special privilegesrom the hated Saddam Hussein. Landlords started toorce Palestinian amilies out o their homes at gun-point the night Husseins regime ell. Many Palestin-ians were attacked, kidnapped and sometimes tor-tured to death by armed groups.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Iraqi govern-ment and its security services ailed to exercise its re-sponsibility to stop this targeting. The Iraqi Ministryo Interior exacerbated the suering o the Palestin-ian reugees by making it more difcult to renew theiridentity papers. During Saddam Husseins regime,Palestinians lived normally in Iraq and carried nationaltravel documents. Now, the Ministry o Interior treats

Palestinians like aliens. Palestinians are required to re-new their residential documents every one to threemonths, and students oten are expelled rom theirschools merely because o their ethnicity.

U.S. troops are culpable as well. They bombarded theBaladeyat district o Baghdad, one o the largest Pal-

estinian communities in the capital, on April 8, 2003,and attacked the Palestinian embassy, detaining the


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acting ambassador and other personnel or an entireyear.

It is estimated that nearly 280 Palestinians have beenkilled during the past nine years, with 101 murderedin 2006 alone when a wave o hatred and violenceswept the city Feb. 22 in the atermath o an explo-sion at Al-Askari Mosque in the Iraqi city o Samarra.Yet, Palestinians rarely participated in internal con-icts, according to the spokesman or UNHCR in Iraq,

Ron Redmond.

Escalation in 2012

Euro-Mid Observatory documented 82 violations against

Palestinians in Baghdad during the rst ve months o

2012 -- a rate o our per week. The Iraqi Ministry o In-

terior was the primary perpetrator, supplemented byarmed militias. The table below shows the numbers and

types o violations against Palestinians in Baghdad rom

Jan. 1 until May 31, 2012.


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Month Arrests

Raids

and

searches

Examples

January

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-- A reporters home in the Baladeyat dis-trict was broken into, injuring him andterrorizing the women and children.

-- The dead body of Emad Hammadwas found in the forensic morgue, withsigns of burns and other torture.

-- Nasser Saleh Faris Al-Baly was hand-cuffed, blindfolded and tortured, thenled through the streets of the Baladey-at district to terrorize the residents.

February 2 0

March

11,includingaman

inhis70s

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-- A total curfew was imposed on theBaladeyat district on March 3.

-- Later, on March 25-30, the Baladeyatdistrict was occupied by masked menwho hid on the roofs of houses.

April 1 6A decision was announced to demol-ish shops owned by Palestinians onthe outskirts of the Baladeyat district.

May 3 4Iraqi national television aired unfound-ed claims that terrorist cells existedwithin Palestinian neighborhoods.

Legal situation o Palestinian reugees in Iraq


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UN responsibility or Palestinian reugees

UNRWA was created by a UN resolution in 1948 to

register and protect Palestinian reugees in ve ter-ritories/countries: the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan,Lebanon and Syria.

UNRWA dened Palestinian reugees as any personswhose normal place o residence was Palestine be-tween June 1946 and May 1948, lost their residence

and manner o lie as a result o the 1948 dispute, andsought asylum in one o the countries where UNRWAoers its help.

This denition excludes many Palestinian reugeeswho were not registered by UNRWA, most common-ly because they had been orced to ee to countries

that were not within the circle o the agencys opera-tions, such as Iraq, Egypt and the Gul region. Humanrights law, however, dictates that displaced Palestin-ians must be protected no matter where they settle,without ear o orced relocation. Thus, there now isa move aoot calling or the scope o UNRWA to bere-dened.

However, even those registered by UNRWA and un-der its umbrella lack some rights that are available tonon-Palestinian reugees. Although the internationalright to asylum was guaranteed through an agree-ment drated in 1951 and ratied by 162 countries, itexcluded individuals who are helped or protected byany o the United Nations agencies (article 1-D). This

eectively excludes Palestinians.


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Protection o Palestinian reugees in Iraq

Law No. 202, passed in 2001 by Iraqs Revolutionary

Command Council, gave Palestinian reugees a mea-sure o protection. The law guarantees treatmentcomparable to Iraqis in terms o rights and duties,although it does not grant citizenship. Tragically, theAmericans invaded prior to implementation o thelaw, and Husseins regime soon collapsed.

The new Iraqi government relied instead on Law No.51, passed in 1971, which dictates the asylum processor political reugees in general, not Palestinians spe-cically. This law, the government now says, is theonly one under which IDs or Palestinians may be is-sued.

The violation o human rights that ollowed orcedmany Palestinian reugees to ee Iraq and head tocamps in the desert by Iraqs border with Syria andJordan. These camps lack the most basic elementso decent living, yet neighboring countries includ-ing Syria, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia reuseto receive them. Although some are able to reach Eu-rope, too oten their applications or asylum are re-used and they are deported back to Iraq, the sourceo their suering.

Although these laws consider the lack o security a le-gitimate basis or granting asylum, Palestinians in Iraqoten are rejected due to inaccurate inormation sug-gesting that Iraq is now sae (For example, in Sweden,

Cyprus, Greece and Norway).


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Whose responsibility?

The responsibility or Palestinian reugees living in

Iraq primarily belongs to the Iraqi government, sincethey live in its territory and its administration agreedearly on to absolve UNRWA o any ormal role. Sec-ondarily, the international community in general andrecipient countries specically must assume moreresponsibility or Palestinians rom Iraq who seek asy-lum. The most suitable international bodies in which

to house this responsibility are UNRWA and UNHCR(United Nations High Commissioner or Reugees).

UNRWA

Euro-Mid Observatory or Human Rights believes thatthe 1950 agreement between UNRWA and the Iraqi

government should now be considered canceled,since circumstances on the ground have so dramati-cally changed and Iraq has ailed to satisy its earliercommitment.

Thus, we call or the activation o the provision inUNRWA resolution No.302 (d) 4, dated Dec. 8, 1950,which governs how the agency negotiates with a

Near East government regarding when internationalaid should start and stop. Since the agreed-upon aidby Iraq to Palestinian reugees within its borders hasnow come to a halt, in violation o its agreement withUNRWA, the relie agency should resume its mandateor this population.

UNRWA is the only organization that the internationalcommunity has empowered to provide health care,


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education and other relie to Palestinian reugees,and it must now step orward to ll the gap. There isprecedent or extending UNRWAs remit beyond the

original ve countries/territories. For instance, the in-ternational community recognized in 1967 the unmetneeds o Palestinian reugees in Egypt, and the UnitedNations General Assembly passed Resolution No. 86,which instructed UNRWA to temporarily expand thescope o its jurisdiction to encompass these individu-als.

UNHCR

According to the mission o the UNHCR, this agencymust step orward i UNRWA is no longer able to pro-tect and assist Palestinian reugees.

Over the years, UNHCRs scope o work has expand-ed beyond reugees to include those who are seek-ing asylum, are stateless and without citizenship and/or are struggling to return home ater displacement.This means guaranteeing that no one is deported to aplace where he or she is threatened with persecutionor ill treatment.

Legally, there are no rulings or resolutions that prohib-it the use o UNHCR authority to extend its services toPalestinian reugees outside o UNRWAs jurisdiction even i only temporarily while UNRWA takes stepsto resume responsibility. Such an action is justiedby the cruel circumstances in which Palestinians ndthemselves. Such aid was oered earlier to Palestinian

reugees who ed Baghdad and sought solace in the


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Nate camp on the border with Syria. However, thataid has been limited and intermittent. These servicesmust be broadened and extended to all o the Pales-

tinian reugees in Iraq.


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Chapter Two:Palestinian Reugees under Threat

o Deportation Back to Iraq

Norway

Twenty-ve Palestinian reugees who managed to es-cape persecution in Iraq and nd their way to Norwayare living in harsh conditions ater their asylum appli-cations were reused; some have deportation (orcedrelocation) orders pending. The Norwegian immigra-tion service based its decision on a June 2012 reportissued by its land inormation branch, stating that Iraqis now sae or their return. The report quoted Mo-hamed Abu Bakr, charged with managing the le othe Palestinian reugees in Jordan, who said that the

living conditions or Palestinians in Iraq is now muchbetter than it used to be back in 2003. He added,Palestinians today have the same citizenship rightsas the Iraqis.

However, as documented in the rst chapter o thisreport, 2012 has witnessed a signicant increase in

violence against Iraqs Palestinians as political conictintensies in the wake o the American retreat romIraq in December 2011 and the rise o the Iraqi securitystate. Eighty-two attacks against Palestinians in Bagh-dad were documented during the rst ve months o2012 alone -- a rate o our attacks a week. It is clearthat the Palestinian minority that remains in Iraq con-

tinues to be exposed to physical threats and discrimi-nation that is endangering their lives. These regular


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attacks on the ground occur in the absence o anyofcial Iraqi action in response.

But saety issues aside, could Iraqs Palestinians actu-ally return to the country?

According to a report issued by the UNHCR advisor onIraq, on July 26, 2006, about 226 Palestinians success-ully escaped rom the violent events in Iraq -- mosto them women and children. They sought asylum in

Syria, but were banned rom entering and were orcedto stay in a camp on the border. Iraqi security orcesaccused the Palestinians o being terrorists, warningthem not to return to Iraq.

A Norwegian land inormation ofce report issued in

2011 quoted the ormer director o Baghdads airport

as saying that Iraqi authorities reuse to receive Pal-estinians returning to Iraq whose asylum applications

were reused abroad. The Iraqi embassy in Stockholm,

Sweden, conrmed in a telegram made available to Eu-

ro-Mid Observer that Iraqs Palestinians who let or

six months or more are not allowed to go back in.

Thus, it is clear that the return o Palestinians to Iraq

through legal means is not welcomed by Iraqi authorities.

Reasons cited or deportation

According to reugee testimony given to Euro-MidObserver, the technical reasons cited by Norwegianauthorities or reusing asylum have included:


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Failure o the language test.A belie that Iraq is now sae, and that torture nolonger occurs.

A belie that some o the reugees who traveled toNorway via the UAE could nd a home there.

It is difcult to nd a judicial source or these judg-ments. In order to obtain the courts decision, the asy-lum seeker must sue the immigration service in a civilcourt and petition or the records to be opened to

the public. This process is lengthy as well as expen-sive; ing suit in civil court costs the asylum seeker aee that ranges between $7,000-$10,000. Yet, asylumseekers are typically unemployed, since they are notallowed to hold jobs once their applications are re-used. Note as well that in 2004, Norway stopped is-suing temporary work permits or those with expired

documents.

The UAE option

O the 25 Palestinian reugees with Iraqi travel doc-uments who have sought asylum in Norway, threetraveled via the United Arab Emirates. Thus, the Nor-

wegian immigration service recommended that theyreturn to the UAE. However, their Iraqi travel docu-ments have expired and the UAE Ministry o Interiorprohibits the entrance o any oreigner without a validpassport or alternative travel document that allowshim or her to return to the country that issued it. Al-though the Palestinian embassy in Oslo could issue aPalestinian passport to these reugees, the document

would not allow its holders to return to Palestine and


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thus would not satisy the UAE requirements. Beoreany deportation is ordered, Norwegian authoritiesmust assure that the reugees will be accepted.

In a document dated May 23, 2012, UNHCR advisedPalestinian reugees not to travel to the UAE unlessthey have the necessary travel documents.

The uture o Iraqs Palestinians in Norway

When their asylum applications are reused, Pales-tinian reugees can continue to live in Norway as il-legal immigrants. However, they live with the constantthreat o attempted deportation to a land that doesnot welcome them.

Living conditions are difcult or illegal immigrants.

Health care

Routine medical care is not available to illegal immi-grants. With the exception o a new health care clinicin Oslo that is sponsored by a mission church and theRed Cross organization and oers ree care to this

population, illegal immigrants must rely on health careworkers who assist these patients on a charity basis.

Euro-Mid discovered that o the 25 Palestinian reu-gees rom Iraq who are now living in Norway, 11 nolonger seek help rom the reugee reception centrebecause they are araid they will be deported. Thisear deprives them o what health care assistance thatdoes exist.


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Residence

When it comes to housing, it is clear rom the testi-

monies and interviews with NGOs that residential aidis lacking or this population. Most have to depend ontheir own meager resources. Since illegal immigrantsare not allowed to work and earn an income, this isnext to impossible. Most have to live with riends.

Illegal deportation across Europe

According to international and European law, Palestin-

ians who hold Iraqi documents and who were orced

by inhumane conditions and persecution to look or

asylum may petition UNHCR or protection and assis-

tance. The countries where they seek asylum must pro-

vide secure shelter, regardless o the matter o their

resettlement, until their nal status is determined.

Given the conditions in Iraq documented in this re-port, the countries where Palestinian reugees seekasylum should consider their applications with sym-pathy. Article No. 33 o the UN agreement on reugeesstates that its not allowed or any registered countryto expel a reugee or deport him to a region where hislie or reedom is threatened because o his race, reli-gion, nationality, membership o any particular socialgroup, or political opinions. This mandate applies toPalestinians seeking asylum rom Iraq.


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Conclusion and recommendations

Iraqi government

The responsibility or the protection o Palestinian re-ugees inside Iraq is primarily the Iraqi governments.It must:

Halt the human rights violations, including arbi-trary arrests and torture, and punish the perpe-

trators.Take quick steps to restore law and order, and as-sure the saety or Palestinian reugees still livingin Iraq.Halt discriminatory acts against Palestinians bythe Ministry o Interior and other governmentalauthorities.

Provide ood and shelter to those in need, partic-ularly Palestinians who have been orced to takeshelter on Iraqs border with Syria and Jordan.Repeal the onerous registration requirements im-posed by the Directorate o Accommodation inthe Ministry o Interior.Open up job opportunities or Iraqs Palestinians.

Facilitate the work o the International Commit-tee o the Red Cross and other humanitarian or-ganizations.

Countries o the Arab world

Arab countries, especially those that border Iraq,must assure Palestinians sae shelter and basic ser-vices.


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They must acknowledge that Iraqs Palestinians arespecically threatened, and thus must join with oth-ers to guarantee that no Palestinian reugee is the

object o orced relocation.

Palestinians should be treated humanely at all times,guaranteeing reedom o movement and protectionrom arbitrary detentions and arrests.

International organizations:

The jurisdiction o UNRWA must be immediatelyexpanded to include Palestinian reugees in Iraq,registering them to include these individuals in itsrecords and providing basic services as soon aspossible.I there must be any lag in taking action, UNHCR

should step orward to serve this population in themeantime.

The broader international community

The crisis o Palestinian reugees in Iraq requires a re-gional solution. All o the countries in the region (in-cluding Israel and the Gul countries) must shoulderpart o the burden by sheltering Palestinian reugeeswho are orced to ee Iraq, arranging re-settlementelsewhere or assisting nancially.


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So oten the world sits idly by, watching eth-

nic conficts fare up, as i these were mere en-tertainment rather than human beings whose

lives are being destroyed. Shouldnt the exis-

tence o even one single reugee be a cause

or alarm throughout the world?

Urkhan Alakbarov


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Palestinian Refugees in Iraq , and Whom under Threat of Deportation Back to Iraq

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