Posted on 08/01/2002 12:00:36 PM PDT by honway
The resettlement programme (of the Iraqi Gulf War refugees) will continue in 1997, which will be the seventh year at the camp for the remaining refugees, because there is no other solution,'' said Abdul Mawla al-Solh, UNHCR representative in Saudi Arabia.
Frustration (among refugees) is very high,'' he said in a telephone interview. Al-Solh said 617 Iraqi refugees left for the United States on Monday and another 511 are due to leave on Wednesday night and Thursday, leaving around 10,000 refugees at the Rafha desert camp.
By mid-1991 about 32,000 Iraqi refugees remained in Saudi Arabia out of up to 70,000 refugees and prisoners of war. The camp was set up as a transit location until refugees, including soldiers who surrended, were resettled or repatriated.
Al-Solh said from June 1991 to the end of this September the UNHCR will have resettled 19,372 refugees, while 3,005 had over the last five years accepted to return to Iraq.
He said delegations from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia were due in the next two months to interview remaining refugees and decide who to resettle in their countries. Al-Solh said Saudi Arabia, which has spent about 2.5 billion riyals ($666 million) for camp expenses including housing and services, has made it clear the refugees could stay until they are repatriated.
An UNHCR official had said in July the refugees were losing hope of ever leaving, felt betrayed by the West and were growing increasingly fed up with the isolation at the camp, known as the Refugee Hilton of the Gulf War. The camp is air conditioned and has schools and hospitals, but is ringed by barbed wire and the refugees are not allowed to leave. Three years ago 13 people were killed in a riot over the barring of new arrivals, but U.N. officials say since then there has been no trouble. (Reuters; Sept 25, 05:07 AM)
For further information please contact DHA/AERU in New York at (212) 963-3953
The West (mainly the U.S.)accepted 19,372 Iraqi POW's and refugees from Saudi Arabia from 1991-1997.
The U.S. accepted more than 6,500 Iraqi refugees from northern Iraq in 1996.
Today our leaders are discussing a possible war against Iraq. Before this war begins, someone needs to answer how many Iraqi soldiers like Hussain Al-Hussaini a.k.a. John Doe 2 were resettled in the U.S.
Based on the reluctance of our allies to accept refugees, we may have resettled as many as 25,000 former Iraqi soldiers and refugees in the U.S. and Canada.
In addition, during the mid to late 90's, over 6,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees were resettled in Jacksonville,Florida.
Today, between 4,000 and 6,000 refugees from Bosnia call Jacksonville home.
The family was placed here by a social services agency contracted by the U.S. State Department.
Your tax dollars at work.
Why thank you. Thank you very much. ; )
Now there's an angle I had never considered. The consummate 'war dodger'. This makes his recent declaration that he "would pick up a rifle and fight and die" for the Isrealis make sense. With this OKC stuff breaking he needs to counter it so his ball-less draft dodging character doesn't effect 'the Legacy'.
FBI Silences Agent Wright on Arab Terror Camps in U.S.
The FBI is trying to silence whistle-blowing FBI Special Agent Robert G. Wright Jr., reports LA Weekly. His crime: "accused the agency of shutting down his 1998 criminal probe into alleged terrorist-training camps in Chicago and Kansas City."
There were many pre 9/11 warnings. If a friend in my office got one...that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Iraqi Refugees In the aftermath of the Gulf War, 37,768 Iraqi refugees fled to Saudi Arabia and were housed in two camps, Rafha, for families, and Artewiyah, for single men.
The original group of refugees included roughly 10,000 Shi'ite rebel fighters who rose in rebellion against Saddam Hussein and another 4,000 or so former soldiers who defected, deserted, or were captured during Operation Desert Storm, and who refused to repatriate at the end of the war based on a fear of persecution if returned
By the end of 1996, 19,797 refugees had been resettled in third countries. The United States had resettled about half of the total, admitting 10,046 between June 1991 and the end of 1996
Before Gulf War II starts, is it unreasonable to ask our government how many Iraqi soldiers that our Armed Forces fought against in Gulf War I were resettled in the U.S.?
http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2000/11/00-6020.htm
Approximately two months after arriving in Oklahoma City from a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, petitioner(SAHIB LATEEF AL-MOSAWI) violently stabbed his wife Inaam, her uncle Mohammad, and her sister Fatima. Only Fatima survived.
In July, 1992, both families received permission to come to the United States, where they settled in Oklahoma City. Dr. Fakrildeen Albahadily and his wife Zayneb Attia of Edmond, Oklahoma were the sponsor family
Only 2,300 Iraqi Shi'ite civilians and former Iraqi soldiers have repatriated from Saudi Arabia over the last two years, leaving 23,000 persons in the refugee camp at Rafha
RIP
They don't posit the real reason....corruption.
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