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SYRIA: Iraqi refugees stage demo

DAMASCUS, 28 May 2009 (IRIN) - In a sign of growing frustration at being able neither to return home nor resettled in a third country, over 100 Iraqi refugees demonstrated outside the office of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Damascus this week.

“We are tired; we want a future and we want a home,” one demonstrator, forced out of Iraq by militias in 2004 because he had worked with foreign companies prior to the 2003 US-led invasion, told IRIN on 28 May. “We don’t sleep at night for worrying. We have no life, no stability and no job,” said the man, who preferred anonymity.

Protestors gathered outside the UNHCR office on 26 May holding banners in English reading: “Why do you keep us homeless?” Others in Arabic thanked the Syrian people and government for letting them stay in Syria.

The demonstration had been planned in response to recent statements by the Iraqi government to the effect that the security situation had improved and urging refugees to return home.

“Two weeks ago the Iraqi government said in the press and through the embassy that they want Syria to return Iraqi refugees because the security situation has improved,” said one demonstrator. “But this is not true.”

“If we return, we will be killed,” said a female demonstrator who left Iraq five years ago after her husband and daughter were killed by militiamen. The woman is awaiting resettlement to a third country. “We will return to stage a longer sit-in with more people if there are no results over the next 15-20 days,” she said.

Representatives from the group of demonstrators held a meeting inside the UNHCR office with Deputy Representative Philippe Leclerc, presenting him with a letter which ended with the plea, “Save us. Save us. PLS.”

Resettlement numbers

UNHCR estimates around 60,000 Iraqi refugees in the region are in need of resettlement - 50,000 of them currently living in Syria. “Germany is planning to take 2,500 this year, including 2,000 from Syria,” UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told IRIN.

Since 2007 UNHCR in Syria has registered 28,000 refugee cases for resettlement to countries outside the region. Of these, only 10,593 refugees have been accepted.

UNHCR continues to register new Iraqi refugees arriving in Syria after fleeing ongoing violence in cities like Baghdad and Mosul. Many refugees have told IRIN over the past eight months they are unwilling to return to Iraq for fear they will be subjected to sectarian violence.

The demonstrations follow reports that UNHCR will suffer a significant budget shortfall this year and will have to scale down its operations.

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Theme(s): (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs

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Copyright © IRIN 2009
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.