DAMASCUS, 9 May (IRIN) – Some 244 Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom had been stranded at the Iraq-Jordan border for nearly two months after fleeing violence in Iraq, have been allowed to cross into Syrian territory.

“I’ve been at the border since 19 March. I’m extremely glad to find a country to live in at a time when all the Arabs have rejected us. I’m sure I will live in Syria safely,” said Iyhab Tim, 30, a Palestinian from Baghdad who left Iraq with his wife and a child after being subjected to “harassment and continuous threats”.

Nine busloads of Palestinians, 181 of whom had been camping since mid-March at the Trebil border point just inside Iraq, rumbled across the Tanef crossing on Tuesday, some 300km northeast of Damascus, under the auspices of the United Nations Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

The Palestinians were received at the border by the head of the General Administration for Palestinian Arab Refugees in Syria and a three-man delegation from Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Territories. Two Syrian ambulances and a food-laden truck were also awaiting the refugees at the border.
alertnet.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 9:29 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.