RIYADH, 3 July — Dozens of Iraqi refugees, stranded in Saudi Arabia since the 1991 Gulf War, are suffering from exhaustion a week after starting a hunger strike to press for resettlement abroad, the United Nations said yesterday.
A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Saudi Arabia said dozens of refugees, among 5,207 Iraqis living at the Rafha camp near the Iraqi border, had been on hunger strike since June 23.
“Some 43 people have been taken ill, suffering from exhaustion and fatigue,” the official said. “They are among a group of mostly young men who are frustrated and angry. They want to be allowed to resettle in Europe, Australia or North America,” he added.
The protest had been peaceful and the situation at the desert camp was calm, the official said, adding that the UNHCR was discussing the refugees with possible host countries.
These people were the last group among some 33,000 Iraqis stranded in Saudi Arabia after a US-led coalition ended Iraq’s seven-month occupation of Kuwait in February 1991. Riyadh has spent around $800 million to host the refugees on its territory over the past 10 years.
Mustafa Omar, head of UNHCR’s mission in Riyadh, meanwhile, commended the Kingdom’s services to the refugees. He said most refugees have been refusing to return to Iraq, despite financial incentives of up to SR10,000 ($2,666) offered by the Saudi government for voluntary return home.
Many of the refugees at Refha camp were Iraqis who fled the country, some with their families, after Iraqi government forces crushed a postwar rebellion in the southern part of the country.
The UNHCR spokesman said around 25,000 refugees were resettled in Europe, Australia or North America before host countries closed their resettlement program in 1997. Some 3,000 others have voluntarily returned to Iraq and the rest remain stranded in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been providing financial assistance to help sustain the refugees, who have no jobs and cannot leave their remote camp, UN officials say. “Although the Saudi government has been generous to them over the past 10 years, the refugees are in a difficult psychological situation,” the official said.
