Syria Today | UNHCR closes Al-Tanf refugee camp

UNHCR closes Al-Tanf refugee camp

The UNHCR closed the Al-Tanf refugee camp located between the Syrian and Iraqi borders on February 1. The closure follows the transfer of the last Palestinian refugees stranded at the makeshift camp to the Al-Hol camp in the north-east of Syria.

Al-Tanf was set up in May 2006 for Palestinian refugees fleeing persecution in Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003. Some 1,300 refugees lived at the camp during the time it was open after being refused asylum in Iraq’s neighbouring countries.

“Today we were able to close this camp,” Deputy UNHCR Representative in Syria Philippe Leclerc said. “This is a very important step and achievement in responding on a humanitarian basis to the situation of people who were stranded there as a result of fleeing persecution.”

Conditions at Al-Tanf, located in the desert, were described as “treacherous” by UN officials who said the refugees had to put up with extreme temperatures, sandstorms and floods.

During the fours years that the camp was open, the UNHCR maintained its call on the international community to accept the refugees for resettlement. Roughly 1,000 refugees were relocated to third countries, including Belgium, Chile, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The last 300 refugees were transferred to Syria’s Al-Hol camp where the UNHCR is continuing to lobby the international community for their resettlement.

“Although the living conditions in Syria’s Al-Hol camp are slightly better, circumstances are not sustainable and a solution is still needed for more than 600 Palestinians from Iraq living there,” a UNHCR report released on February 1 said.

Al-Tanf was one of three camps that received Palestinian refugees from Iraq. There are an estimated 2,000 Palestinian refugees currently stranded at Al-Hol, as well as the Al-Waleed camp located on the Iraqi side of the border.