MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile accepts 100 Palestinian refugees displaced from Iraq

There are currently 1.100 refugees in Chile

Several Chilean cities have offered to take in as many as 100 Palestinian refugees that are currently living in refugee camps along the Iraqi border. These include the cities of La Calera and San Felipe in Region V, and Ñuñoa in the Metropolitan Region.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will provide housing and food for the next two years, while the cities guarantee access to education and health care. Cristián Kock, the High Commissioner for Refugees for Latin America, arrives in Chile next week to discuss the details and to talk with the Foreign Ministry. Chile's Foreign Ministry is expected to send a delegation to the refugee camp –situated along the border between Iraq, Jordan and Syria- to interview the Palestinians and inform them about their new home. "Most of the refugees are families. We will focus on the social aspect and their access to education and health care. This may prove a bit difficult in some cases, because not all of them possess identification," said Nuñoa mayor Pedro Sabat. Chile's government said it will try to find the refugees appropriate jobs and get them in contact with the Palestinian community in Chile. There are currently 1,100 refugees in Chile, with another 400 expected to arrive over the next few months, according to government statistics. In related news Chile's government announced that it won't be sending troops to Darfur, as was formally requested by the UN almost two weeks ago. The government also denied the UN request for six helicopters. Gonzalo García, Chile's Undersecretary of War said Chile first wants to bring the peacekeeping mission in Haiti to a good end. "We can't be deploying troops on a massive scale somewhere else at the same time". Presently, 360 Chilean troops are on a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. During the deployment in Haiti, only one Chilean has been injured. The undersecretary also said that there were no helicopters available for a mission in Darfur at this moment. "Several things have to be taken in account when agreeing on a peace-keeping operation," said the undersecretary. "One is whether the operation is of national interest. Second, it is important to know the criteria of the mandate and its organization. And third, we need to know what type of units to send. After having taken all these aspects in account, it remained unclear to us why to go there at this point." The United Nations (UN) requested that Chile send 200 troops to join the 26,000 peacekeepers already deployed to the war-torn nation of Sudan, where ethnic conflict has left 200,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced. The request came after a July 31UN Security Council Resolution which will commit a mixed force of African Union (AU) and United Nations troops to the area. The troops are needed to protect the population and ensure freedom of movement in the area following devastating civil wars, recent flooding, and genocide in the Darfur region. By Kristian de Leeuw The Santiago Times