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)
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