Update: Going to Sweden too.
We have written on several occasions about the Palestinians favored by Saddam Hussein who attempted to get out of ‘Dodge’ (Iraq) when the people Saddam had persecuted came to power there. However, Jordan and Syria, the countries that have taken the largest number of Iraq’s displaced people refused entry to the Palestinians, once again demonstrating that Muslim countries do not help resettle Palestinians. According to Reuters some are packing up for Iceland.
AL WALEED, Iraq, Aug. 4 (UNHCR) – More than two dozen vulnerable Palestinian refugees stranded for the last two years in a makeshift camp in the desert on the Iraq-Syria border are set to leave the camp in the coming weeks for Iceland.
“The group includes some of the most vulnerable women and children with urgent cases, for whom resettlement is the only option” says Daniel Endres, UNHCR’s Representative in Iraq.
Iceland takes 25 to 30 refugees for resettlement every year and in recent years has focused on resettling single women and single mothers with their children.
In addition to Iceland, Palestinians are going to Chile and Brazil, demonstrating again that suffering Palestinians are more important to Islamic countries as a political club with which to beat Israel. So much for Muslims helping Muslims.
UNHCR has repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians but with few results. Few Palestinians in the border camps have been accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries; only some 300 Palestinians left to non-traditional resettlement country such as Brazil and Chile.