Palestinians in Iraq - Resettlement

Resettlement

Resettlement continues to evade thousands of Iraqi-Palestinians, living as IDPs in Iraq or refugees in squalid border camps. However, there has been progress - particularly for those living in the border camps in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. At the end of 2009, 61 residents of Al-Tanf camp were given permission to settle in Italy, and out of the 1,300 Iraqi-Palestinian residents who had been stranded in the camp, more than 1000 were relocated to third countries; including Belgium, Chile, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In 2009, the United States also allowed more than a thousand Iraqi Palestinians from camps inside Iraq to be resettled within its borders. This was the largest ever Palestinian refugee resettlement in U.S. history. Critics of the State Department decision to resettle this group of Palestinians objected that they were sympathizers of Saddam Hussein. In December 2009, the united efforts of the not for profit company, Australian Society for Palestinian Iraqi Refugees Emergency (ASPIRE), and Amnesty International-Australia led to the Australian government approving 16 families making up 68 people from Al Hol for humanitarian refugee status. They are now living in Melbourne and Perth.