October 15, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1429

GENEVA, Oct 14: About 3,000 Palestinian refugees stranded in the Iraq desert desperately needed a home abroad, the United Nations said on Tuesday in an appeal to countries to take them in.

Almost half of the 2,943 Palestinian refugees living in two border camps at the Iraq-Syrian border for more than two years require urgent medical treatment, or fear persecution if they return to Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“Living conditions at the border camps are extremely difficult, unsafe and continue to deteriorate. Refugees face extreme temperatures and regular sand storms in the desert camps,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing.

“UNHCR once again calls for urgent actions from resettlement countries all over the world,” he said.

The Geneva-based agency is hosting talks on Wednesday with resettlement countries to discuss the possibilities for the Palestinians, who it says can neither safely return to Iraq nor enter neighbouring countries.

Several hundred Palestinians have been resettled from the Iraqi camps in the past few years, including to Brazil, Chile, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, New Zealand and Canada.

Iraq hosted 30,000 Palestinian refugees before the US-led invasion in 2003. They became the target of attacks or threats after the war began, partly because of Baghdad’s support for the Palestinians under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Fewer than 15,000 Palestinians are believed to remain in Iraq, according to the UNHCR.—Reuters