Close the UN Palestinian camp in Syria-Iraq Border

Damascus - The United Nations has closed one of two Palestinian refugee camps on the border between Iraq and Syria after finding refuge in other places for their citizens 1300, the UN report said on Wednesday.

Palestinians began to flee to camps near the Syrian border in 2006 as a result of torture and attacks on their community by militants in Iraq, most Shia berfaham.

The refugees were gathered in the area near the border at-Tanf and al-Waleed, living in conditions that UN officials describe as a dangerous situation. Syria refused to allow most of the refugees to stay permanently in their territory, saying that other countries in the region including Israel, must also take responsibility for them.

A report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that at-Tanf camp was closed on February 1.

Chile and several Western countries, including Sweden and Australia, have been taken around 1000 of the camp's residents since 2008 and Syria to accept the remaining 300 people, move them into al-Hol, another camp in northwestern Syria that has the citizenship of refugees from several different .

"Although the conditions of life in Syria Hol camp a little better, it does not allow for extended residence," the report said.

Al-Waleed, another camp in the Syrian-Iraqi border, still holds about 1,000 Palestinians and 200 people from other nationalities, according to UNHCR.

Iraq had 30,000 registered Palestinian refugees before the US-led invasion in 2003 that changed the balance of power in the country which benefits the majority Shiite community and led a period of sectarian strife.

The refugees had received help from the government of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated but their luck get worse when the Shia political power in post-Saddam era.

Syria had taken in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees and 430,000 Palestinian refugees registered with the Board of the United Nations Relief and Works. Most of them are descendants of Palestinians who fled their homeland when Israel was formed in 1948.

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