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Return of Iraqi Refugees from Saudi Arabia Discussed with UNHCR
BAGHDAD, Sept 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq said Saturday it was holding talks with the U.N.'s refugee agency over the return of thousands of Iraqi refugees from the 1991 Gulf War still living at a camp in northern Saudi Arabia, news agencies reported.
"We are in contact with the UNHCR in an attempt to bring about the return of our compatriots in Rafha camp," said Fahmi al-Qaissi, a high-ranking official at the Iraqi foreign ministry, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said - quoting the official Iraqi Al-Qadissiya newspaper.
"We want to save these people living in open desert. The Saudi authorities exercise repressive practices against them and humiliate them," Qaissi said.
Baghdad is ready to implement "any form of agreement for their return to their homeland," he added.
According to U.N. figures, more than 5,200 refugees remain at the Rafha camp. More than 33,000 Iraqis were housed at the camp when it was first established after the Gulf War.
Dozens of refugees staged a hunger-strike in June to draw world attention to their plight, protesting "the uncertainty over their future" since a program to settle the refugees in third countries was broken off in 1997, AFP reported.
Last month, Saudi Arabia described its treatment of the refugees as "decent", adding that the refugees themselves and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees acknowledged this.
Iraqi refugees consist of two main groups - Iraqi dissidents and deserters from President Saddam Hussein's national army, and Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq.
Portions of the Shiite minority group are of Iranian descent. There is also a third smaller group of Iraqi "Turkomens", or Iraqis of Turkish descent.
Iraqi soldiers deserted Saddam's army throughout the course of the Gulf War, with mass surrenders common towards the end. They were held in Saudi Arabia and treated essentially as prisoners of war. Fears of execution upon return to Iraq have caused many to remain in Saudi. Furthermore, many were persuaded to surrender with the promise of U.S. support.
With the collapse of the rebellion against Saddam Hussein's regime in southern Iraq in March of 1991, at least 100,000 Iraqi Shiites fled into neighboring Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.-occupied zone along the Iraq-Kuwait border.
Fearful of retribution against these refugees with the advent of U.S. troop withdrawal from the region, the U.S. brokered a deal with the Saudi government for the establishment of a Saudi-maintained refugee camp near Rafha, and another camp called Al Artawea.
Eventually, Al Artawea was closed, and all refugees were sent to Rafha.
Rafha was divided between military deserters, overwhelmingly comprised of single men, and Iraqi families, most of whom are Shiite.
Most of the Iraqi refugees today have started new lives in the United States, Graet Britain, Canada and Scandinavian countries, or have returned to Iraq.
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