UN worried about 200 Iranian Kurds in no man's land

AMMAN, July 11 (Reuters) The United Nations today expressed concern about the worsening health of 200 Iranian Kurds who have been stuck in a no man's land on the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan.

The group had become more vocal in recent weeks by resorting to demonstrations and limited hunger strikes to push for resettlement abroad, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

''UNHCR is increasingly worried about the health and well being of a group of 200 Iranian Kurds. The Kurds are unhappy with their situation on the border and demanding resettlement to a third country,'' said Yara Sharif, Amman-based spokeswoman for the UN refugee body.

The 200 refugees have refused to join over 3,000 of their compatriots relocated last year in a camp in Kawa in northern Iraq where now over 10,000 Iranian Kurds registered with the UNHCR have settled, Sharif said.

Hundreds of Iranian Kurds and Palestinians lived in no mans land for more than two years after the US led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

UNCHR says most of the Iranians fled their homeland during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980s, and some also fled during the Gulf War.

Witnesses said the refugees had recently clashed with Jordanian border police when they tried to enter the Jordanian side of the border.

Three refugees had already gone on hunger strike and their health had seriously deteriorated despite appeals by the refugee body to end their protest.

''While the UNHCR has done all its power to send assistance and medical care, the refugees have consistently refused any of this help, putting the life of the most vulnerable among them in serious danger,'' Sharif said.

The refugees have resisted offers to relocate them to northern Iraq in an attempt to put pressure on the UNHCR to find them asylum in third countries outside the region.

Jordan, which has hosted successive waves of Palestinian refugees since the creation of Israel in 1948, has refused asylum to any new groups, wary of encouraging a new refugee influx.

REUTERS SY BD2157