CPTnet

1 April 2006

IRAQ: Palestinians camp at the Jordanian border

by Peggy Gish

"You will not be allowed to leave Iraq unless the Iraqi Ministry of Interior
authorizes it and the Jordanian government agrees for you to enter Jordan,"
an Iraqi border official told the eighty-eight Palestinian Iraqis who had
arrived at the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan. Early Saturday, 19
March, they left Baghdad because of continued violence against the
Palestinian community there. Now, at 9:00 p.m. the border was closed. The
sixteen Palestinian families, including forty-two children, would have to
spend the cold desert night in their two buses.

CPTers Beth Pyles and Peggy Gish, who had accompanied the group of
Palestinians, talked with the official, arranged for a meeting with his
supervisor the following morning, and made calls to United Nations High
Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) representatives in Baghdad and Jordan. Then
they, too, slept on the bus.

The next morning, an official told Pyles and Gish that the Palestinians'
request to leave Iraq would be granted. If they left, however, they would
not be allowed to return to Iraq.

Later, when the buses left the Iraqi border gates and drove into the "no
man's land," Jordanian police and other officials demanded that the refugees
return to Iraq. They refused. Pyles and Gish told the Jordanian officials
about the extreme threat that prompted the Palestinian group's flight from
Iraq and explained that the refugees were not allowed to reenter Iraq.

After forcing the buses to turn around and return to a place closer to the
Iraqi border gates, a Jordanian policeman insulted one of the bus drivers.
The driver jumped out yelling and ready to fight. Soon a line of Jordanian
soldiers and police with their guns ready to fire faced a line of Iraqi
soldiers and police ready to return fire. In between, stood about twenty
Palestinians who had left the bus. Pyles and Gish asked the Jordanian
police chief to tell his men that insulting the driver was unacceptable
behavior, and called for both sides to stay calm.

On the barren desert ground just outside the Iraqi border gates, each
Palestinian family made a pile of their belongings and set up a tent.
Palestinian leaders completed a list of each person in the group that Gish
and Pyles would take to a UNHCR representative in eastern Jordan. Gish and
Pyles found it hard to say "good-bye" to the families and head toward Amman
while the Palestinian women, men and children braced themselves for an
approaching sand storm.

On Wednesday, 22 March, a representative of UNHCR in Baghdad confirmed the
report that Palestinians on the border were forced to move from their no
man's land location to two buildings just inside the Iraqi border. An Iraqi
Colonel told them they could stay there for a week, and that they will be
allowed to exit Iraq again if Jordan will let them in. At this point,
however, entry into Jordan seems unlikely.