A first group of 59 Palestinian refugees who remained stranded for
many years in an overcrowded makeshift camp in the Iraqi desert,
arrived safely yesterday at a new Emergency Training Centre in the
northern Romanian city of Timisoara.

IOM and UNHCR accompanied the families from Al Waleed camp to
the Jordanian border, and then onwards to Amman's Marka airport,
where they boarded an IOM-chartered flight for Timisoara.

"The families were exhausted but so happy to have left the dire
living conditions in Al Waleed camp," says IOM's Haifa Khalil, who
helped the families in transit at the airport. "All said they
looked forward to the prospect of starting new lives in
resettlement countries, such as the United States and the United
Kingdom."

The refugees will now temporarily be housed in the new Emergency
Transit Centre while their applications for resettlement are
processed. IOM will provide medical support and cultural
orientation classes to prepare them to meet the challenges and
opportunities of daily life in resettlement countries.

The centre, which was officially opened last month, is the
result of the Tripartite Agreement jointly signed by the Romanian
government, UNHCR and IOM.  It offers refugees access to a
durable solution and participates in the international burden
sharing. The opening and effective use of this centre illustrates
the complementary of work between IOM and UNHCR.

There are an estimated 34,000 Palestinians in Iraq, of whom
23,000 have been registered by UNHCR in Baghdad. The Palestinian
refugees came to Iraq in three main waves, in 1948, in 1967 and in
1991. Over the past three years, many more Palestinian families
were forced to flee attacks and forced evictions inside

For more information, please contact:

Redouane Saadi

IOM Geneva

Tel: +41 22 717 9321

E-mail: "mailto:rsaadi@iom.int">rsaadi@iom.int

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