Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Iranian asylum seekers did not to work as laborers, shopkeepers,
mechanics, and construction workers. Although
technically under the 1971 Refugee Act, refugees enjoyed
the same labor rights as citizens, in practice they did not.
Refugees in central and southern Iraq had difficulty finding
jobs because of their lack of documentation.
The 1971 Refugee Act did not specifically provide
for refugee property ownership, but earlier legal provisions
benefited Syrian refugees. Refugees were unable to
register businesses, own land, or open bank accounts, as
all of these activities required Iraqi national identification
documents.
2+5=7
Public Relief and Education
In October, an Iranian
Kurd woman died in an Iraqi
hospital near Al Tash camp after a
Jordanian hospital discharged her
and her condition worsened after
returning to the rough conditions
at the camp. In November, three persons died of
illness, including two Palestinian boys suffering from
malnutrition and cancer while awaiting resettlement
from Iraq.
The Government cooperated with UNHCR as it
aided refugees but many aid workers left after receiving
death threats and attacks. UNHCR worked through partner
NGOs, while the Iraqi Red Crescent and Iraq Aid Association
(IAA) also operated. In January, insurgents turned back
IAA volunteers bringing supplies to Palestinian and Syrian
refugees in Baghdad.
Iranian camp residents received food from the
ICRC and an Iranian-American relief organization, which
also donated medical supplies and school supplies. UN-
HCR helped Iranian Kurdish refugees who moved to the
Kawa camp in Erbil with vocational training. Some 223
families received houses, and the agency provided internal
roads, water, and electricity to Kawa residents. Despite
limited access to Al Waleed camp, through the Italian
Consortium for Solidarity (ICS), UNHCR gave residents rations,
non-food items, electricity, and fuel. ICRC provided
water, sanitation services, and medical supplies. Medicines
were in short supply, and only one doctor was available for
all 1,550 residents, many of whom suffered from asthma,
cancer, and heart problems. ICS took seriously ill patients
to a hospital every two weeks. Aid officials said Palestinian
children in the desert camps suffered from lack of food
and medicine.
The Refugee Act entitled refugees to the same
health and education services as nationals and, in the
Kurdish regions, UNHCR and the regional government provided
these services. Refugees without identity documents,
however, had difficulty attending school and getting other
services. Some 430 children attended school in Al Waleed,
where UNHCR paid for 12 teachers.
Israeli-occupied territories
Refugees and Asylum Seekers: 1,792,200
Gaza Strip 1,047,200
West Bank 745,000
1951 Convention: Yes
1967 Protocol: Yes
Reservations: 8, 12, 28, 30
UNHCR Executive Committee: Yes
Population: 4 million
GDP: n/a
GDP per capita: n/a
Israeli-Occupied Territories .
Introduction The West Bank and Gaza Strip housed
nearly 1,792,200 refugees, all of them Palestinian, most
of them descendants of some 700,000 refugees who fled
what is now Israel after its war of independence in 1948.
Jordan and Egypt held these respective territories until
the 1967 war in which Israel seized them. In 2005, Israel
withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip but retained control
over the entry and exit of people and goods, airspace,
territorial waters, tax revenue, utilities, and population
registry. These refugees constitute nearly half of the
population of the West Bank and the majority of the
population of Gaza.
Refoulement/Physical
Protection As Israel did not
permit the return of Palestinian
refugees, refoulement was not an issue
and neither Israel nor the Palestinian
Authority (PA) forcibly deported
anyone from the territories. Israeli
security forces, however, killed nearly 400 Palestinians in
2007, including 53 minors. Just fewer than 100 of the total
were from the West Bank and nearly 300 from the Gaza
Strip. At least 131, or about 35 percent, were civilians taking
no part in hostilities. The total was down from nearly
700 the year before, when 140 of the victims were minors
and 54 percent civilians. According to the Israeli nongovernmental
organization B’Tselem, the primary reasons for
these deaths were Israeli policies easing the military’s rules
of engagement, faulty transmission of regulations to the
field, disproportionate attacks, and failure to investigate in
killings of civilians.
Israeli authorities conducted nearly 400 search
campaigns in the 19 West Bank refugee camps, killing 12
refugees, injuring nearly 100 and detaining more than 400.
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