Sudanese refugees quit Iraq desert, new home unknown

GENEVA: Nearly 100 Sudanese refugees stuck in Iraq's desert since 2005 after fleeing Darfur 20 years ago were evacuated on Tuesday, but their final destination is unknown, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The 97 refugees, including women and children, were brought by road to Jordan ahead of an evening flight to Romania, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

At a transit centre in Timisoara, they will await processing of their applications for resettlement in another country. The group had tried unsuccessfully to flee Iraq after being targeted by insurgent groups following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, according to UNHCR.

Stranded in the makeshift K-70 camp outside the town of al-Rutbah in the Anbar desert, some 75 km (45 miles) east of the border with Jordan, they were "subject to severe weather conditions and harassment by militias", UNHCR said.

"The refugees have had little or no contact with their families in Sudan since they left. They fear returning to their country," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing.

"Eventually they will be settled elsewhere, it will probably be (to) a few places," he added.

A second group of 42 Sudanese was expected to leave Iraq next month, which would empty the camp, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said.

Some 17 Sudanese were killed in Iraq between December 2004 and February 2005, as a result of assaults by militias, according to the Geneva-based agency.

GENEVA, Wednesday, Reuters