The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will immediately start the process of verification and refugee status determinations, a key step in preparing the submissions of eligible candidates for resettlement in third countries.Today’s relocation is in line with the memorandum of understanding signed in December by the UN and the Iraqi Government to resolve the situation facing the residents of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf)..
EU High Representative Catherine Ashton Saturday”very much welcomed”the news from Iraq that the first group of residents from Camp Ashraf has moved in a voluntary, orderly and peaceful manner to Camp Hurriya.”I congratulate the United Nations – in particular the Secretary General’s Special Representative Martin Kobler – for many weeks of sustained efforts to facilitate this critical first step towards a peaceful solution..
The United States encourages Ashraf residents to continue their cooperation with Iraqi authorities and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) as they work to complete the relocation to Hurriya, she said. The United States will continue to coordinate with UNAMI and the Iraqi government to follow the relocation process, she said. In addition to around-the-clock UN human rights monitoring, the U.S. will visit the temporary transit facility at Hurriya regularly and frequently,U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Saturday.
Several hundred Iranian exiles were traveling to a UN-approved site near Baghdad on Saturday after leaving Camp Ashraf, where Iranian opposition members have been based for decades.The move is part of a December 25 deal between the UN and Iraq..Iraq had previously aimed to close Camp Ashraf in Diyala province..But Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki said on December 21 that his government had agreed to extend the deadline to April
The plan now agreed to by the Iraqi government should be given a chance to work. As a first step, it calls for the camp residents to voluntarily relocate to a transit site at the Baghdad airport. In contrast to Camp Ashraf, this site would be monitored around the clock by observers from the United Nations. There, the residents would be interviewed by the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, to determine their eligibility for refugee status..
The Secretary-General reiterates that the Government of Iraq bears the primary responsibility for the security and the welfare of the residents of Camp Ashraf..At the same time, the residents of Camp Ashraf also bear a responsibility to abide by the laws of Iraq. Any provocation or violence must be avoided and would be unacceptable…UNHCR and UNAMI had confirmed that the infrastructure and facilities at the new relocation camp met international standards.
The death of the patients and the wounded of this cult as a result of the lack of treatment : I would like to draw your attention to the health situation of the two of my friends , the first one Mr. Abbas Haj Husseini who in one of the cult military operations in 1988 got wounded by a bullet in his Cervical Spinal Cord and he got paralyzed , Abbas always wanted to go to Europe to be treated and cured but the leaders of this cult not only did not pay attention ..
It seems that your official intervention can be a serious help in this regard and it can overcome all the pmoi leadership’s excuses , pretexts and decisions. We are urging you to force pmoi to stay devoted to its own commitments which officially accepted and signed in front of the UN representative and in this regard they should accept all the consequences if they do not accept and reject the concluded agreement. ..
UNHCR has been for some time and remains ready to undertake verification and refugee status adjudication for the residents of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) who are persons of concern. It has mobilized teams on the ground, and has put in place the necessary soft and hard ware support capabilities. Individual interviews will need to take place in a safe, neutral and confidential location. UNHCR attaches utmost importance to ..
The plan by the UN to temporarily relocate the residents of camp Ashraf to a safer location, where the UN will be able to check whether they are entitled to refugee status, is definitely the first step in the right direction, Brok said in s statement..“I therefore appeal to the leadership of the camp to engage in this process without delay and I call on the government of Iraq, which has a clear responsibility to respect human rights and humanitarian law, to ..