UN refugee agency gets food, relief aid to Kurds stranded at Iraq-Jordan border
Jordan-Iraq, Politics, 2/14/2005

The United Nations refugee agency has managed to deliver food and relief supplies to 102 desperate Iranian Kurd refugees, including at least five pregnant women and a large number of children, who have been marooned for up to four weeks on the Iraqi-Jordanian border without access to any assistance, the UN said.

On Friday, the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization delivered food, plastic sheeting, mattresses, blankets and jerry cans provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the same day the agency reported that it had so far not been allowed to bring aid from Jordan to the refugees who are stranded on the Iraqi side of the border.

The Kurds, from the 20-year old refugee camp at Al Tash in the violence-torn Fallujah region of Iraq, have not been permitted to enter Jordan or join another group of 660 mostly Iranian Kurds living in a camp in no-man's land between the two countries for the past year-and-a-half.

UNHCR is trying to confirm reports of more arrivals at the border, possibly expanding the group to 115 refugees.

The agency has been exploring with the Iraqi authorities the possibility of supplying them from the Iraqi side, not an easy option. It has also discussed two options with the Jordanian authorities -- admission or the transport of assistance across the border.

Previous Stories:
  Normalization opposition in Jordan are against supplies to the Americans in Iraq   (1/5/2005)
  Jordan's invitations for Iraq's neighboring states conference   (12/31/2004)
  Abul -Gheit: Arabism needed in Iraq to protect from sectarianism   (12/23/2004)

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