A Syrian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was set on fire Saturday night following a fight between members of the camp and a local Lebanese family, Lebanon celebrated Christmas with a set of Christmas trees that commemorated the victims of the Beirut port blast this past August.Beirut is still Lebanon health authorities have detected one case of the new COVID-19 strain on a UK flight that arrived in Beirut on December 21, acting Health Israel-Palestinian clashes leave victims in West Bank settlement with heartache, Surge in online scams, hacks expected ahead of FIFA World Cup, expert warns, Saudi Arabia concludes Jeddah Security and Development Summit, Joint Saudi, US statement sees vital agreements, action plan to tackle global issues, Syrian army deploy towards border with Turkey, World Bank to fund $100 mln in food insecurity aid to Sudan through WFP, Khota: The Lighthouses of Aad - Episode 22. Some 66,000 of them returned to Iraq in a subsequent exchange of PoWs. The government has also voted against giving the displaced people the official designation of refugee.. Le Journal International 2008 - 2016designed by Le Journal International. They are unable to return to Iraq for fear of persecution. This post was originally published on the Ref-Arab project website in October 2020 and is republished with permission. The plight of the Rafha refugees combines tragic elements of forced displacement, imprisonment and callousness. We use cookies to improve your experience on our site and to In response to those who consider that the humanitarian relief granted by the governments of Gulf countries is insufficient, they have defended themselves by showing that a considerable amount of financial aid is granted to the Syrian refugees through NGOs and donations from the United Nations. Her current research focuses on the historical relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UNHCR, and in particular the case of the Rafha refugee camp, set up during the first Gulf War to shelter approximately 33,000 Iraqi refugees. The increase of oil revenues consequently led to a heavy reliance on work-related immigration. The Borgen Project is an incredible nonprofit organization that is addressing poverty and hunger and working towards ending them. The history of the internal displacement protection regime, Waves of migration: a Vietnamese refugee boat journey in numerical modelling and oral history, UNHCRs first urban refugee policy, 25 years on. These countries are still the least populated in the world. In 2016, Syrian and Yemeni holders of the visitor permit were also made eligible for a work permits. The Saudis have ignored numerous pleas by the UNHCR to relocate the camp away from the highly militarized zone. In short, thekafala system requires every foreign national working in the country to have a sponsor, usually a Saudi national or a company. But some 5,200 remain there in limbo, still waiting in the barren desert for a lasting solution to their plight, amid dwindling hope and increasing frustration.
In 2015, Yemeni nationals were also given the opportunity to obtain visitor status under similar conditions, and that same year more than400,000 Yemenis had regularized their statusin this way. There are around 100 families who used to live in this camp, he added. @SGordonGibson For that reason they are guests of the kingdom, and hence are subject to the changing whims and caprices of the Saudi authorities. This reluctance to welcome Syrian refugees into their countries is also due to the fear that this arrival of Arabs - politicised by the Syrian war - could also cause subversive ideas being brought into the States, as well as suffering from uprisings in less politicised countries such as those in the Persian Gulf. The Saudis have kept them confined to the camp, behind a double barbed-wire fence, for more than ten years. In this blog post, I seek to discuss Saudi Arabias long and often complicated history with the refugee question, focusing on the period subsequent to the establishment of the contemporary international refugee law regime in 1951 and specifically highlighting key issues that I will be studying closer as post-doctoral researcher within theREF-ARAB project. Credits to Akram S. Abahre. The camps proximity to the Iraqi border, moreover, violates a UNHCR policy that asylum-seekers should be located at reasonable distance from the frontier of their country of origin to guarantee their safety. Maja Janmyr, at the 71stsession of the UN General Assembly in 2016, does not come close to resembling a right-based refugee protection system, specific recruitment office was even set up in Beirut, undocumented Eritrean nationals was tolerated, quarter of a foreign worker within the Saudization program, 400,000 Yemenis had regularized their status, more difficult for Syrians to enter Saudi Arabia, considered the best in any refugee camp situation in the world, Time for a convention on internal displacement? The Saudi authorities provided the refugees with air cooling, food, clothes, a monthly allowance and even cigarettes, in addition to health care and schooling. The letter also called on the UNHCR to approach interested countries with the objective of resettling all refugees.. Saudi Arabias KSRelief to rebuild Syrian refugee camp burned down in Lebanon.
During this time, equipped tents are put up over 20 square kilometres in Mina, a neighbourhood of Mecca, for five days. [4] Saudi Arabia does not consider Syrians as refugees. None of them was reported to have been confined to a refugee camp or had their freedom of movement otherwise restricted. Despite the possibility of hindering the demographic balance in Gulf countries, there is no possibility of reaching bursting point. The Gulf Arab States are some of the very few countries that didnt sign the United Nations Convention concerning the status of refugees in 1951, a key document that led to the establishment of refugees rights as well as the legal obligations of the signatory countries. Resettlement from Rafha has come to a virtual halt since 1997. We are the worlds largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. However, UNHCRs mandate remains restricted and its ability to assist refugees has arguably been limited. In Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for example, in 2010, almost 90% of the population was foreign; In Kuwait, this figure reached 70%. Most of the refugees did not seek asylum or refuge in Saudi Arabia. They are mainly former students who used to pursue their specialized training in Islamic studies at the religious centres of Najaf and Karbala, and their families. Hundreds of Syrian refugees fled their makeshift camp in north Lebanon after their tents were torched when fighting broke out between local youths and camp residents.KSRelief confirmed it will be rebuilding the camp and secure housing for those affected. Vusumuzi R. Kumalo. More recently, Rohingyas havesince 2005been able to regularize their residence status and obtain work permits. Women refugees face unwarranted and excessive restrictions. Social media, the news and human rights reports have taken turns in shaming Saudi Arabia for its refusal. 
Materially speaking, the conditions in the camp fully funded by the Saudi government were sufficient, or evenconsidered the best in any refugee camp situation in the worldaccording to UNHCR. Some of those who returned have reportedly suffered severe punishment. According to the UNCHR, about 40 percent of the camps population in 2000 was under the age of eighteen and one fourth was under the age of ten, having experienced life only through the depressing prism of Rafha. Saudi Arabia is not a party to the main global refugee protection instrument, the 1951 Refugee Convention, nor does it have any specific domestic legal framework pertaining to refugee issues. While many of the camps Iraqi refugees were early on resettled to third countries or repatriated to Iraq with the assistance of UNHCR, some stayed in the camp for years. [3][4] However, a UNHCR official stated that the number of Syrians in Saudi Arabia was around 700,000. These countries often struggle to absorb the number of refugees needing homes. During the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, tens of thousands of Kuwaitis sought refuge in Saudi Arabia, where they were housed in public housing units and given the right to move freely around the kingdom. On the other hand, camp residents had little or no freedom of movement, and were not able to obtain work permits to work outside the camp. Few resettlement delegations have returned to the camp since the end of 1997. Former inmates of the camp have told Crescent International that the high levels of frustration and desperation at Rafha have resulted in a large increase in suicide attempts. No human casualties were recorded, but only material damage, added Malas. According to the UNHCRs Saudi Arabia: Country Profile (September 1999), another 266 persons of concern to the commission, mainly Sudanese, Somalis and Ethiopians, were living in various parts of Saudi Arabia at the time. It is estimated that around 90,000 Iraqis were originally granted temporary asylum in the then-US-occupied zone of southern Iraq and Saudi Arabia after the war. Fizza Moloo Gulf War refugees and UNHCRs Establishment.
But 33,000 refugees refused to return and were housed in two camps, Artawiyyah and Rafha. Hydrocarbon resources in Gulf countries allow them to support economic initiatives that stabilize the region. Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, are opposed to opening their doors to people seeking refuge altogether. Until recently, families lived together in one section of the camp, whereas single men and former PoWs lived in another. The desolate life of the camp, the poor prospects of resettlement to a third country, and the uncertainty of their future put the refugees in a strenuous and gruelling psychological situation. Lebanon is among more than 22 Asian countries that have benefited from KSRelief programs and projects. The United Arab Emirates are in 12th place and Qatar ranks in 16th place. The overarching reason that people seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia are being denied status or even shut out of the country has to do with issues of national security more than threats to demographic stability.
In this sense, evende factorefugees who would meet the refugee definition set out in the 1951 Convention are attended to through a system of labor migration. UNHCR sources say that the Saudi authorities render a high level of material assistance to the refugees. Many of them are believed to have been executed. The Mina tent city has not been opened to people seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia because their government claims that this is not what such people want. In 1993 the refugees frustration and anger over their mistreatment boiled over into clashes, in which 13 people were killed and scores of others wounded by gunfire from Saudi soldiers (Crescent International, August 16-31, 1993). According to organizers of the Ottawa rally, Ms Marshal appealed to the demonstrators to help persuade the refugees to end their hunger strike. 
She holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the Institute of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo. The case of the Rafha camp and the Iraqi refugees is unique in relation to Saudi Arabias historical relationship to refugees. The Syrian refugee crisis has become the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. The treatment the Saudis mete out to Iraqi refugees contrasts sharply with their open-arms policy toward Kuwaiti refugees during the Gulf crisis. However, with the number of people seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia continuously growing, the country continues to dismiss their status and refrains from putting them in refugee camps. [2], Saudi foreign ministry officials claim that the nation has received nearly 2.5 million Syrians since 2011. Similar demonstrations were also held in Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark) and New York (US). Yet no amount of material assistance can mask the inhumanely hermetic, funereal emptiness of life in Rafha. Gulf countries are in fact the most stable countries of the region, and getting involved in Syrian refugees could endanger this stability. Should we receive such a request we will include it as a consideration for our future planning exercise. The camp is run by the Saudi army with advice from the UNHCR, which upgraded its presence in the kingdom in 1992 from a liaison office to a branch office in order to address the increasing needs of Iraqi refugees. But the sheer number of refugees creates trouble for host countries trying to integrate refugees into society. The newspaper claimed that outlets in the US have exploited a technicality used by the UN to count Syrian refugees, and that it is more plausible that 500,000 Syrian refugees are currently in Saudi Arabia. The protesters delivered a letter to Ms Pat Marshal of the UNHCR office, calling on the international organization to act immediately to resume the resettlement program for 5,200 Iraqi refugees who are still in the Rafha camp. On June 23, scores of refugees started a hunger-strike in Rafha that lasted for more than a month, to press for resettlement abroad. Similarly, a royal decree in 1979 granted the Eritrean Liberation Front (EFL) a status of institutional sponsor for Eritrean migrants, meaning that, for several decades, Eritreans could enter the country without a work contract, fees for their residence permits were waived, and the presence ofundocumented Eritrean nationals was tolerated. However, from the very beginning the Saudi government had made it clear that the camps were built on the condition that no refugees will be offered local integration in the kingdom, and that they would not leave the fenced-in 20-sq kilometre area. The great majority of these migrants are regularized through thekafala system of sponsorship. The Kingdom has opened its doors to host hundreds of thousands of Syrians since the beginning of the crisis. Currently, WFP is assisting nearly 235,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees in Kigomas Mtendeli, Nduta, and Nyarugusu refugee camps. Saudi Arabian forces have bombed these regions and want to know if the refugees are escaping ISIS or the bombings. Due to increased criticism, in 2016 Saudi Arabia provided $75 million to aid refugees. However, aside from this support and the linguistic and religious ties that these countries share with the refugees, they have not taken any of them in. A few days ago, a Lebanese newspaper revealed that Saudi Arabia had offered to fund the construction of 200 mosques in Germany to allow the new arrivals from Syria to practice their faith within the country. Saudi Arabia is not a signatory of the 1951 Convention concerning refugees or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Lebanon has over one million Syrian refugees who fled since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. In practice, none of the Iraqis who took refuge in Saudi Arabia, the vast majority of whom have well-founded fears of persecution in Iraq, has been granted political asylum. Internally displaced persons, or IDPs, outnumber refugees by two to one. We are following on the needs of the Syrian brothers, he added. The distribution of dates will take place this month and provide more than 50,000 beneficiaries with much-needed healthy nutritients. Only 95 refugees remained in the Rafha camp in September 2006. "[9], Syrians in Saudi Arabia include migrants from Syria to Saudi Arabia and their descendants. While other refugees, as the former Crown Princes statement highlights, are legally treated as foreign workers (though in some cases with a special status), the Rafha camp stands out. Meanwhile, Rafha refugee-camp continues to be a place where there are no dreams any more, a monument to human suffering, endurance and wounded pride. WFP is grateful to The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for their continued support. M: +255 784 720 022
Many of the men in the camp have not seen or heard from their families in Iraq since they left the country. The consignment of dates will supplement WFPs monthly food assistance to over 50,000 pregnant and breatfeeding women, children under five years of age and other vulnerable groups in Mtendeli, Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps in the Kigoma Region. A significant reason for Saudi Arabia closing its doors to people seeking refuge has to do with the Islamic State and Syrian Sunni Muslims. They have provided us with copies of correspondences with Immigration and Citizenship Canada in support of their point. The UNHCR has promised the Ottawa protesters that it will send a delegation to Rafha to investigate the situation of the refugees and to provide answers to questions about the weakness of its efforts to resettle the refugees in other countries. Single men desiring to marry and raise their own families are unable to do so because of the small number of eligible women there. Understanding the circumstances of the camps establishment and management, and the role of UNHCR in these processes, will contribute to a greater understanding of Saudi Arabias relationship to the international refugee regime and the refugee question in general. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports WFP refugee operations in Tanzania - 29 July 2021, Performance management and accountability, Democratic Republic of the Congo emergency, UN agencies and international institutions, Clusters and multistakeholder partnerships, Goodwill ambassadors, advocates and high-level supporters. [6] On the other hand, the BBC claims, "Most successful cases are Syrians already in the Gulf states extending their stays, or those entering because they have family there,"[3] and, "No Syrians claiming asylum have been taken in by Saudi Arabia or other wealthy Gulf countries.
Valentine Ouaki, Translated by Kitty Bartlett. M: +255 768 525 270 The Rafha case is not only important as an outlier case, but also because its creation coincided with UNHCRs establishment in Saudi Arabia. This problem warrants a need for significant humanitarian aid and cooperation. Mtendeli, Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps in the Kigoma Region. In 2005, UNHCR negotiated a deal with the Saudi authorities who for the first time authorized the settlement of about 300 of the refugees in urban areas, providing them with refugee identification cards, access to healthcare and education and allowing them to work. Saudi Arabia also has no clear legal or legislative provisions for the protection of refugees, or for granting political or humanitarian asylum to them. Other kinds of abuse of power have also come to light, such as failure to pay the workers wages, confiscating their passports, or even forced labour. Most of the refugees are Shiah Muslims from the marshes of southern Iraq. "[6], The Huffington Post has criticized the international community for saying that Saudi Arabia has taken no refugees. The worker needs the permission of the sponsor to leave the country or to change jobs, and the sponsor is responsible for the regulation of the workers residence permit for as long as they are in the country. The Saudi authorities prevent women from moving freely within the camp unless they are wearing a niqab and are accompanied by a male escort.