U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants World Refugee Survey 2007 - Iraq

Refoulement/Physical Protection

There were no reports of refoulement in 2006. The Government offered refugees protection under the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period (TAL), but had no mechanism for determining refugee status. Refugees typically registered with the local government in their area. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) only had local staff in Iraq, with its international staff operating out of Jordan.

Insurgent groups, mostly Shi'a, killed about 170 Palestinian refugees because the Shi'a associated the Palestinians with the larger Sunni insurgency and believed that Palestinians enjoyed privileges under Saddam Hussein. After the February bombing of a Shi'a shrine in Samarra, assailants killed 12 Palestinians in Baghdad and kidnapped several others. More than 100 families received death threats, and insurgents attacked Palestinian buildings with mortars and gunfire. In March, the Judgment Day Brigades passed out pamphlets in Palestinian neighborhoods threatening residents' death if they did not leave within 10 days. The messages also accused them of working with the Nawasib, a derogatory term for fundamentalist Sunnis and supporters of Saddam Hussein. Subsequently, many Palestinians did not go to work or send their children to school out of fear.

Neighbors also warned Palestinians that suspicious strangers had asked them in which houses the Palestinians lived. In March, a group of 90 Palestinians, including women and 40 children, fled Baghdad and arrived at the Iraq-Jordan border, but Jordanian authorities stopped them and forced them to remain for four days in a no-man's-land between the two countries, where the group grew to 200. Iraqi soldiers ordered the refugees to return to Iraq after four days.

In April, the Palestinian Muslims Association in Baghdad said it had received more than 280 reports of murder and rape since September 2005 and more than 140 reports in the previous four weeks alone. At the end of April, Shi'a religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani released a statement demanding there be no more attacks against Palestinians.

In May, Syria accepted a group of around 300 Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Jordan border but later closed the border to Palestinians from Iraq. Some of these refugees had been living in a camp inside Jordan but had returned to Baghdad in 2004, only to flee again following the Samarra bombing.

In May, there were at least six more Palestinian deaths and renewed threats, including circulation of the same pamphlets passed out in March.

Despite Syria's announcement that it would not accept any more Palestinians, dozens of refugees made their way to the border in May. The group was at 330 by September. Iraqi security forces reportedly visited the area. A truck ran over a 14-year-old boy when he asked for water. In November, Iraqi guards abducted three refugee men and two children. They released the prisoners 10 days later, who reported that they had physically abused them. An additional 40 Palestinian refugees arrived in December. By February 2007, the group had risen to 700.

In June, in Baladiyat, a Palestinian housing complex in Baghdad, armed men in three cars tried to kidnap a man from the area. When he tried to run away, they shot and killed him. When a crowd gathered, the armed men fired into the crowd, killing another and injuring three. In August, insurgents seized large numbers of Palestinian homes in Baghdad. In October, insurgents fired mortar shells into Baladiyat, killing four refugees and injuring eight. In November, insurgents abducted, tortured, and killed a 70-year-old Palestinian, and in December shelled the same Palestinian area, wounding and kidnapping three. Four days later, mortar attacks killed at least five Palestinian refugees and wounded about 20. The insurgents shelled the area for three hours with no response from national or international forces; insurgents blocked the path for ambulances.

In January 2007, insurgents killed at least eight Syrian refugees and others went missing.

Insurgents killed two Palestinians in January 2007 while they were standing next to a hospital. Iraqi security forces killed three Palestinians in a raid in the Baladiyat area in March 2007.

More than half the 34,000 Palestinian refugees in the country in 2005 fled. The United States and countries in the European Union usually declined to resettle Palestinian refugees.

In March, UNHCR urged a group of about 200 Iranian-Kurdish refugees in the no-man's land to move to a camp in Erbil, northern Iraq. They remained, however, in hopes of resettlement to a third country. In 2005, the refugees had fled the al-Tash camp outside of Baghdad and arrived at the Iraq-Jordan border. After Jordan denied their entry for more than a year, UNHCR said the refugees were outside its mandate, and it could not resettle them. UNHCR had moved about 1,300 Iranian-Kurdish refugees from al-Tash camp to northern Iraq since September 2005. The Government agreed to integrate about 3,000 Iranian Kurd refugees in northern Iraq, as well as Iraqi Shi'a Kurds returning from Iran.

A refugee camp 40 miles north of Baghdad held about 3,500 Iranian refugees, most of whom belonged to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, which the European Union and the United States considered a terrorist organization.

Detention/Access to Courts

The Government detained at least 50 refugees, primarily Palestinians, but also a few Iranian Kurds and Syrians, not all with formal charges and likely because of prevailing anti-foreign sentiment. The International Committee of the Red Cross was able to monitor detainees in custody of the U.S.-led coalition, but not those that the Iraqi Government held.

In January 2007, Iraqi police raided a building rented by the UN for 26 Palestinian families. They detained 17 men as terrorists and Hussein followers, but released them after nine hours. Authorities arrested and released another 13 Palestinians near the Baladiyat area the same day. The security forces had also detained dozens more in previous weeks.

New rules required Palestinian families to appear before the Department of Residency every one to three months for registration renewal, where the staff occasionally verbally abused them or confiscated their documents.

Police, security forces, Iraqi security forces, coalition forces, and members of the public repeatedly threatened, detained, and harassed refugees, particularly Syrians and Palestinians they suspected of terrorism.

Freedom of Movement and Residence

There were no legal restrictions on refugees' freedom of movement or choice of residence. The general insecurity, as well as harassment, physical attacks, and arbitrary detention, however, restricted the ability of refugees to move freely. Fear of kidnap and murder by mostly Shi'a insurgent groups severely restricted the movements of Palestinians in Baghdad.

The Government issued Palestinians blue travel documents that distinguished them from Iraqis who received green passports. Insurgents reportedly used the distinction to identify and kill many Palestinian. Palestinians reported that they were afraid to leave their buildings. Authorities stamped the passports of Palestinians "right to exit, no right to return" when they left the country.

Right to Earn a Livelihood

Refugees were able to work legally under permission from the president's office. There was no labor legislation in force for refugees or for nationals.

Refugees were not able to register businesses, own land, or open bank accounts, as all these activities required Iraqi national identification documents.

Public Relief and Education

In January 2007, insurgents turned back volunteers from the Iraqi Aid Association in Baghdad who were bringing supplies to Palestinian and Syrian refugees. UNHCR helped Iranian Kurdish refugees who moved to the Kawa camp in Erbil with vocational training. Hundreds of these refugees had lived in al-Tash camp for more than 20 years.

The Government and UNHCR allowed refugee children to attend local schools. UNHCR provided them with health services. Refugees without residence permits had difficulty gaining access. In March, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, along with UNHCR, gave tents and assistance to the group of 90 Palestinians on the Iraq-Jordan border. In April, aid officials said the children suffered from lack of food and medicine. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provided medical and dental services and education.

The Government cooperated with humanitarian agencies in assisting refugees.