JORDAN: Tensions rising in Iraqi refugee camp

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

AMMAN, 15 May (IRIN) - Tension is rising in an Iraqi refugee camp in Jordan, as the residents await third country resettlement, according to officials from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The rugged and windswept al-Ruweished refugee camp, some 350 km east of the Jordanian capital, Amman, has been home to hundreds of refugees fleeing Iraq since the US-led conflict began there in March 2003.

Some 500 refugees were at the camp initially, but numbers have decreased to 123. There have been some protests by remaining residents at the camp after 386 refugees were accepted for resettlement by Sweden and 23 by Ireland.

"Since the general situation hasn't changed, there is frustration, resentment of the status quo and tension within the refugees especially Palestinian refugees with no valid travel documents," a senior protection officer for UNHCR, Jacqueline Parlevliet, told IRIN in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Two years on and the stress and pressures of living within the confines of a camp, as well as the conditions, have taken their toll, observers say. The death of Aya, a three-year-old child, due to a fire at the camp in April, highlighted poor conditions at the camp.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/98b2d3598fe6265ad8cde11831fd0f75.htm