Palestinian refugees from Iraq hold demonstration outside UNHCR

New Delhi, Nov 6 (UNI) More than 70 Palestinian refugees from Iraq, including women and children, today held a demonstration outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) demanding that they be recognised as refugees and re-settled in any other country.

The refugees said they had become ''target of massacre'' in Iraq and were framed by terrorist groups for allegedly supporting deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain.

Alleging that the terrorists mutilated and dishonoured even dead bodies, the refugees said they had been individually threatened of similar fate.

''This frightened us beyond tolerance and pushed us to take the extreme measure and flee the land we were residing in for many years,'' they said adding that many had fled to the borders of Jordan some of whom were now favoured by the Canadian government and recognised as a refugees to be re-settled in Canada.

The refugees said they had come to India to approach the UNHCR with the hope that they be recognised as refugees and re-settled in any other country.

The first group of the refugees had reached India in February 2006 and applied for refugee status to which there had not been any response so far.

In a statement distributed at the demonstration, the refugees said the UNRWA, the body appointed by the UN to support and sort out the problems of Palestinian refugees, was ''incapable'' of providing a durable solution to the problems of the Palestinians.

Since the UNRWA does not function in Iraq, there are no UNRWA offices in that country and the refugees are not registered there.

UNI RB PA SSC1346