24.11.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Ramadi: Iranian Kurds fleeing al-Tash camp ("original document") [ID 10291]

"There are concerns for some 1,400 refugees who have reportedly fled from the al-Tash camp in central Iraq following recent fighting around the city of Ramadi, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Wednesday.

The camp, which recently hosted some 4,200 Iranian Kurds, is located in the area of Ramadi, roughly 110 km from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and near the city of Fallujah, which has been under attack by US-led troops for over two weeks since Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allwai, gave the go-ahead for a major offensive to flush out insurgents there. (...)

The camp was established under the former government in the mid-1980s to gather the Iranian ethnic Kurds in the country in one place. It houses Iranians who left their country after the fall of the Shah – the former king of Iran - in 1979, and during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war."

Document(s): original document

15.10.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iranians released from detention ("original document") [ID 10292]

"130 IRANIANS RELEASED FROM DETENTION IN IRAQ. Iranian state-run television reported on 11 October that 130 Iranian nationals were released from detention and repatriated to Iran. Some 400 Iranians reportedly remain in detention in Al-Kut, Al-Basrah, Al-Hillah, and in Abu Ghurayb. Iranian Charge d'Affaires Kazemi-Qomi said that 98 percent of the Iranians in detention are there because they entered Iraq illegally. One to two percent of those detained had committed a crime, he said. (Kathleen Ridolfo)"

Document(s): original document

29.10.2003 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Focus on Iranian Kurd refugees ("original source") [ID 10293]

"Since April, some 1,200 members of the group tried to move to Jordan and are now living in tents in the no-man's-land between Jordan and Iraq, while they plead with the Jordanian government for entry. Many of the 6,000 to 7,000 people in the Al-Tash camp, near Al-Ramadi in western Iraq fled to Iraq in 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war."

Document(s): original source