Agence France Presse – Ireland is taking in 180 Iranian Kurds who have been living in various temporary refugee camps for the last 25 years under a UN resettlement scheme, the justice ministry said on Monday.
The Kurdish refugees are made up of 11 family groups with individuals ranging in age from two to 73 years.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell personally welcomed the first group of 65 refugees in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, in the west of Ireland on Monday.
They had arrived in Ireland 10 days earlier under the UN’s Refugee Resettlement Programme.
The ministry said the group’s arrival results from McDowell’s announcement in February to accept a large group of refugees from the UNHCR camp near Ruwayshid in Jordan on humanitarian grounds.
Ministry officials selected the group in April and the refugees are undertaking a six-week language and orientation training course before being permanently resettled in Dublin and County Leitrim in the north midlands.
"This group of Iranian Kurds fled from Iran to Iraq between 1979 and 1981 where they were accommodated in an area known as Al Tash," the ministry said.
"Following heightened insecurity associated with the Spring 2003 military intervention in Iraq, the group fled to the Jordanian border where they lived in the ‘No Man’s Land’ refugee camp."
In May 2005 the Jordanian government agreed to transfer the group to the Ruwayshid refugee camp for security reasons."
"Under Jordanian law, the group were considered as temporary visitors and, as such, were entitled to a maximum of six months residency after which they are vulnerable to refoulement," the ministry said.
The UNHCR proposed to close the Ruwayshid camp later this year.
"In all, these families have spent over 25 years in various temporary camp-like sites – the children have known no other kind of existence," the ministry statement said.
Refugees have been admitted into Ireland from 16 different countries to date under the programme run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
