Thirty Palestinians leave Jordan camp to settle in Brazil

Thirty Palestinians from the Rweished refugee camp, 60 kilometres west of the Iraqi-Jordanian border, left for Brazil Thursday for resettlement, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. With the departure of this group, 13 or 14 refugees will remain in the desert makeshift camp awaiting resettlement in a third country, UNHCR Regional Public Information Officer Sybella Wilkes told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Discussions are ongoing to have the last group resettled before the camp is permanently shut down in the coming weeks, she said. Brazil has agreed to receive more than 100 Palestinians who fled Iraq for safety after many of their relatives were killed by Shiite militias which accused them of supporting the former regime of president Saddam Hussein. Many Arab and Western countries with strict immigration policies have refused to host the Palestinian refugees since they arrived at Rweished camp shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. dpa ajm wjh