A 30 May 2000 APF report states that Iraq wanted to repatriate to Iran 30,000 Iranian refugees living in the Al-Tash camp, located near the town of Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of Bagdad. The report mentions that these refugees had sought asylum in Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war and quotes a UNHCR official as saying that the refugees were Arabs from Alwaz province, Kurds and Persians who feared persecution.

A recent U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) report states that:

About 24,000 Iranian refugees resided in government-controlled Iraq in 1999. Most of the Iranians (13,577) lived in the Al-Tash camp in western Iraq, about 90 miles (150 km) from Baghdad.

In Al-Tash, described as a slum, refugees were not permitted to work, and their movement was also restricted. All of the refugees at Al-Tash are Iranians, and most are Kurds, many of whom have been affiliated with political opposition groups in Iran. Although the great majority of camp residents are Sunni Muslim, more than 1,000 camp residents belong to the Ahl-e-Haq religious minority. Many of the Al-Tash residents have been refugees for as long as 18 years. Conditions deteriorated in Al-Tash in 1999, as they did generally in Iraq, strained by international sanctions (2000).

Some 1,850 Iranians voluntarily repatriated in 1999, all from Al-Tash and all spontaneously. Also during the year, 193 Iranian refugees were resettled to third countries from Al-Tash. About half of the refugees in Al-Tash have expressed an interest in voluntary repatriation. (2000)

A March 1999 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report on the Al-Tash refugee camp states that:

There are 15,800 refugees from Iran in Al Tash camp. They are Sunnis and ethnic Kurds who arrived in Iraq in 1979-80 and 1984-85. Resettlement started ten years ago on grounds of protection needs and family links abroad. Some 3,000 refugees have been resettled, mostly in the Nordic countries, and some in Switzerland and the Netherlands on family reunification grounds. However, some of them have faced serious integration problems in resettlement countries and are today stigmatised as lacking integration potential. The levels of resettlement from Al Tash dropped markedly over the last two years. It is estimated that some 3,500 refugees have repatriated spontaneously from Al Tash. The interest in organised voluntary repatriation is apparently also very strong among the refugees.

In the absence of a local integration alternative in Iraq, once all of those who state that they wish to repatriate actually do so there would be a residual caseload of some 3,000 to 4,000 refugees in need of resettlement. This is the population for whom resettlement opportunities should already be sought. 200 cases of 900 persons have been identified as meeting UNHCR's criteria for resettlement, including a number with family links abroad. Effort are being made to broaden the base of resettlement opportunities to include Australia, Canada and the United States.

On the situation in the Al Tash camp in 1998, The USCR: 1999 Country Reports: Iraq states that:

The official UNHCR figure for all Iranian refugees residing in Iraq stood at 28,979 at the end of the year, of whom 219 entered in 1998. Of these, 15,808 were at the Al-Tash camp in western Iraq, about 150 km (93 miles) from Baghdad. In Al-Tash, described as a slum, refugees were not permitted to work, and their movement was also restricted. Most of the refugees at Al-Tash are Kurds, many of whom have been affiliated with political opposition groups in Iran. Another 1,494 camp residents belong to the Ahle Haq religious minority.

In November, the UN special rapporteur on Iraq reported that Iraq was imprisoning in the Abu Ghraib prison in incommunicado detention "hundreds" of Fayli Kurds and other stateless persons (long-time residents of Iraq who the government claims are Iranian) who reportedly had "disappeared" during the Iran-Iraq War in the early 1980s.

No Iranian refugees were known to have repatriated in 1998.

On the situation in the Al-Tash refugee camp in 1997, the USCR: 1998 Country Reports: Iraq states that:

The number and situation of Iranian refugees in Iraq did not change significantly in 1997. The official UNHCR figure for all Iranian refugees residing in Iraq stood at 34,247 at year's end. Of these, 20,787 were at the Al-Tash camp in western Iraq, about 150 km from Baghdad. In Al-Tash, described as a slum, refugees were not permitted to work, and their movement was also restricted.

On the situation in the Al-Tash refugee camp in 1996, the USCR: 1997 Country Reports: Iraq states that:

In 1996, government-controlled Iraq hosted 35,472 recognized Iranian refugees. Of that number, 20,080 were Iranian Kurds living in the Al-Tash refugee camp in western Iraq, about 100 miles from Baghdad. In Al-Tash, described as a slum, refugees were not permitted to work, and their movement was also restricted. Several thousand of them reportedly petitioned the Iranian embassy in Baghdad for permission to repatriate. By year's end, however, none of them had repatriated.

On the situation in the Al-Tash camp for the same year, the winter 1997/Spring 1998 issue of Iranian Refugees At-Risk, the Iranian Refugee's Alliance Quarterly Newsletter, states that:

Reports from the Al-tash camp, which is located outside Iraqi Kurdistan and controlled by the Baghdad government, further indicate the general gravity of living conditions for refugees anywhere in Iraq. Independent reporters who visited the Al-Tash camp in 1996 found the refugees living in squalor in a slum-like conditions. In the summer of 1995 UNHCR's representative in Iraq, Abdallah Saied, told Reuters: With U.N's food stocks in Iraq running out UNHCR could no longer provide them [Al-tash refugees] with a full food basket. World Food Programme representative in Iraq, Lucielo Ramirez, added that the situation of the refugees is getting bad. Because of our supply shortages, they are not getting enough. In Al-tash, refugees are not permitted to work, and their movement is also severely restricted. The outlook for these refugees is so grim that in June 1996 some 150 Al-Tash refugees, mostly women and children, who could not stand it any more, fled to Kurdish-held Northern Iraq because there was hardly any water, food or health care. Some of them were offered dilapidated houses by Iraqi Kurdish villagers, but many sought shelter in abandoned poultry shacks and sought help from relief organizations.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 30 May 2000. "Iraq Wants to Repatriate 30,000 Iranians." (NEXIS)

Iranian Refugees At-Risk [Washington, DC]. Winter 1997/Spring 1998. "'Unsafe Haven' Iranian Kurdish Refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan (Part II)." http://www.irainc.org/text/nletter/w97s98/w97s98.html [Accessed 22 Sept. 2000]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). March 1999. "Al Tash Camp." http://www.unhcr.ch/resettle/wherefro.htm#IRAQ [Accessed 22 Sept. 2000]

U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR). 2000. USCR Country Reports: Iraq. http://www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/mideast/iraq.htm [Accessed 22 Sept. 2000]

_____. 1999. USCR: 1999 Country Reports: Iraq. http://www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/mideast/1999/iraq.htm [Accessed 22 Sept. 2000]

_____. 1998. USCR: 1998 Country Reports: Iraq. http://www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/mideast/1998/iraq.htm [Accessed 20 Sept. 2000]

_____. 1997. USCR: 1997 Country Reports: Iraq. http://www.refugees.org/world/countryrpt/mideast/1997/iraq.htm [Accessed 20 Sept. 2000]