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650 Iraqis leave refugee camp in Saudi Arabia to return home
Riyadh, Oct 21: About 650 Iraqis have left a refugee camp in northern Saudi Arabia where they have lived for the past 12 years to return home, a senior Saudi official said today.
Riyadh, Oct 21: About 650 Iraqis have left a refugee camp in northern Saudi Arabia where they have lived for the past 12 years to return home, a senior Saudi official said today.
"This is the largest group of people to leave the camp for Iraq," the manager of the Rafha camp, Brigadier General Khalid Bin Fahd Al-Wasseifer, said in a statement.
Al-Wasseifer said the Iraqis left Rafha in a convoy of 26 vehicles headed for Kuwait, from where they will cross into Iraq's southern Basra province. It was not known today when they would enter Iraq.
Several groups of Iraqis have returned home since US-led forces ousted President Saddam Hussein's regime in April, including 450 people last month. Owing to the lack of security in Iraq, the United Nations is not encouraging Iraqi refugees to return home, but it is assisting those who want to.
Rafha camp was established after the 1991 US-led Gulf War that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. It houses mostly Iraqi Army deserters and soldiers taken prisoner during that war.
Bureau Report
Al-Wasseifer said the Iraqis left Rafha in a convoy of 26 vehicles headed for Kuwait, from where they will cross into Iraq's southern Basra province. It was not known today when they would enter Iraq.
Several groups of Iraqis have returned home since US-led forces ousted President Saddam Hussein's regime in April, including 450 people last month. Owing to the lack of security in Iraq, the United Nations is not encouraging Iraqi refugees to return home, but it is assisting those who want to.
Rafha camp was established after the 1991 US-led Gulf War that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. It houses mostly Iraqi Army deserters and soldiers taken prisoner during that war.
Bureau Report