02/25/2008

Not far from Arbil city center is a scattered speckling of UN-blue gates, tarps, and barrels. Kawa Settlement, which presently houses the residents of the now-closed camp of Al-Tash, is home to about 230 Iranian Kurdish refugee families (totaling 1,350 individuals) who fled their homes in Iran between 1979 and 1988. Women in the settlement are generally housewives, while men work in construction and the local markets. In Al-Tash many of the school-age youngsters were also employed on construction sites, but in Kawa all of the children between ages of 6 and 12 attend school, and about 90 percent of those over age 12 do as well.

An implementing partner of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides services, including electricity, water, sanitation, garbage collection, education, health care, and construction of new homes. House construction is being undertaken in three stages. The first phase saw the completion of 144 houses for 152 families, the second was for 59 structures, and at the present time there are only seven families still waiting to move from tents into houses. A deep well has also been established for camp residents. UNHCR has supported the host community as well, spending two years building a sewage system and extending the water network. The host community also benefits from access to the newly constructed health clinic and the school with nine classrooms.

During a recent visit to Kawa, several representatives of the refugee community spoke with Refugees International about their situation. One refugee told RI, “We are grateful to the government for financial assistance, but we have spiritual problems. We can’t live one without the other. As refugees, we have been residing outside our country for 29 years and have suffered a lot. We ask for three things to resolve our problems. First, we want to return under conditions of guaranteed safety and international recognition. Iran rejected this. Second, we want to be recognized as refugees by the Kurdish Regional Government. Right now we can not register cars in our names, and houses are provided to us, but they are not registered in our names. We have marriage issues. And third, some 17 individuals were recognized as refugees and designated for resettlement in Canada, but nothing happened.” In fact, Canada stopped the process of interviewing inside Iraq in 2003.

“When we lived in Al-Tash, Iraq was under Saddam Hussein’s control. When soldiers got hurt, they would hurt refugees.” Al-Tash was closed in 2005. “We are safe here, but we are homesick. It is possible to have citizenship but then there is no chance to resettle.” One teacher said that such citizenship is not formal and that it is not possible to secure Iraqi certification. She said she understood that a person would have to leave the camp to get citizenship. UNHCR assured Refugees International that this is not the case.

A refugee woman told RI that “women have no way to know themselves. There needs to be a place where women can come to learn about rights. Our difficulty is that we don’t know ourselves. We don’t know if we are Iraqi or Iranian.” The provision of a community center where such activities can take place is currently in UNHCR’s 2008 program.

The three requests of the refugees are reasonable. Refugees International urges Iran to guarantee safe return to their country of origin, and in cases where return is not possible, for Iraq to grant nationality to individuals seeking that option. We encourage UNHCR and Canada to resolve and resettle the outstanding cases. Organizations operating in the Arbil area and donors should consider supporting programs targeted to women’s rights and needs. UNHCR will continue to pursue durable solutions for this group, most notably integration and voluntary repatriation.