A New Refugee Camp in Baghdad
by Maureen Jack, CPT Iraq

In addition to the loss of their homeland, the
situation of Palestinians dispersed throughout the
Middle East has been precarious for over fifty years.
In Iraq it has never been satisfactory, but since the
recent war and the fall of the previous regime the
position has been even worse; many Palestinians have
been made homeless and a new refugee camp has had to
be established in Baghdad.

UNWRA is the UN agency that is responsible for
Palestinian refugees, but it was not allowed to
operate in Iraq. Instead, successive Iraqi
governments undertook to provide accommodation for
those Palestinians who fled to Iraq directly after Al
Naqba in 1948; the figure of 5000 at that time has now
grown to 35000. Some families were housed in
government-owned accommodation, some rented their own
accommodation, and some were housed by the Iraqi
government in privately-owned accommodation, with the
government paying the rent. Over the years, the
government failed to increase the rent paid to the
Iraqi landlords, thus creating resentment. With the
fall of the previous regime, some, but not all,
landlords took the opportunity to evict their
Palestinian tenants, so that they could rent out the
property at rents that reflected current market rates.
So, once again, there are Palestinian families living
in tents as refugees, this time at Haifa Stadium and
Cultural Centre in Baghdad. When the Iraq Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT)
visited the camp on 12 July 2003 there were 291
families living there, 50 more than when some of the
team had visited a month before; several hundred other
families have been served with eviction notices, and
so the number of those who are homeless is likely to
increase further.

Conditions in the camp are very difficult and the
people living there are suffering considerable
hardship. Toilet and washing facilities have been
extended but are still limited and basic; water for
cooking and washing comes from communal standpipes.
Each tent houses a family; in some cases this means
seven people sleeping together with scarcely room for
them all to lie down. A few of the tents have some
electricity provided by a generator but most tents are
without electricity. Under the sun of a Baghdad
summer a tent with no relief from a fan is not only
uncomfortable but also potentially dangerous. Last
week a woman died because of the heat. The camp
administrators and the Red Crescent do what they can
to protect the most vulnerable, by providing a nursery
for young children in the centre's building and by
arranging for the elderly to spend time inside, but
there are more people in need of respite from the heat
than can be provided for. Some camp residents spend
the day with relatives, only returning to the camp to
sleep.

No one in the camp says that they come from Baghdad;
they come from Gaza, Hebron, and other places in the
West Bank. What everyone wants is to return to their
families' homes in Palestine. In the meantime,
however, what they want and need is secure housing in
Baghdad with essential amenities. What no one wants
is for there to be a refugee camp at Haifa other than
for immediate relief. Additional buildings will be an
admission of defeat rather than an achievement.
This week the CPT team has, along with other
internationals associated with groups such as Voices
in the Wilderness, Bridges to Baghdad and Occupation
Watch, been supporting a peace tent at the camp as a
sign of solidarity with the Palestinians' demands for
secure housing.

The international community cannot allow Haifa to
become as seemingly permanent as Sabra, Shatila, or
Aida camps. And the occupying authority cannot, in
all conscience, allow the suffering of the Palestinian
families at Haifa to continue.

[Current members of CPT Iraq are Peggy Gish (Athens, OH), Maureen Jack
(Fife, Scotland), and Anne Montgomery (New York, NY).]

Claire Evans
Personnel and Delegation Coordinator
Christian Peacemaker Teams
PO Box 6508
Chicago, IL 60680
Tel: 773-277-0253; Fax: 773-277-0291

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches
(Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and
membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations.