Letter: UN closure of camp betrays refugee rights
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Your support makes all the difference.UN closure of camp betrays refugee rights
Sir: In defiance of the growing chorus of international criticism by human rights and aid organisations, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to shut down the Atrush refugee camp in south Kurdistan (northern Iraq).
Atrush is no ordinary camp. It is the only sanctuary for approximately 15,000 Kurds from north Kurdistan (south-east Turkey) who fled the destruction of their villages and torture and brutal persecution carried out by Turkish soldiers and gendarmes.
The closure of this camp, which has an internationally recognised status, by the High Commissioner for Refugees is tantamount to denying these refugees the minimum internationally recognised humanitarian standards of treatment. It also betrays a callous contempt for human rights.
This policy is in stark and revealing contrast to that pursued by the United States and the United Nations last year, when 7,500 Kurds and their families who worked with the operation Provide Comfort were hastily evacuated via Guam to the US, to protect them from possible reprisals by Saddam Hussein's regime.
But for the Kurds from Turkey, new standards and different criteria apply. 15,000 Kurdish refugees are now quietly and expeditiously sacrificed to suit Turkey's barbaric aims, with the apparent approval of the UNHCR following Ankara's intervention in Washington. We appeal to the UNHCR to immediately stop its plan to close the camp.
Lord AVEBURY
Chairman, Parliamentary Human Rights Group
Lord REA
Lord McNAIR
Baroness GOULD
Lord HYLTON
JOHN AUSTIN-WALKER MP
(Woolwich, Lab)
TONY BANKS MP
(Newham North West, Lab)
TONY BENN MP
(Chesterfield, Lab)
JEREMY CORBYN MP
(Islington North, Lab)
CYNOG DAFIS MP
(Ceredigion and Pembroke North, PC)
MARGARET EWING MP
(Moray, SNP)
ALAN SIMPSON MP
(Nottingham South, Lab)
DAVID ATKINSON MP
(Bournemouth East, C)
JENNY JONES
Green Party
LESLEY KIPLING
Socialist Labour Party
KEN CAMERON
General Secretary, FBU
TIM GOPSILL
HAROLD PINTER
TOM STOPPARD
Vice-President, International PEN
MARGARET DRABBLE
Vice-President, International PEN
EDWARD MORTIMER
LOUISE CHRISTIAN
SHERI LAIZER
MIRANDA WATSON
GEORGE EUGENIOU
Cypriot Advisory Service
LIB PECK
National Peace Council
MICHAEL FEENEY
Refugee Adviser for Cardinal Hume
JOHN JOSSET
Policy Officer for Refugees, Catholic Bishops Conference England and Wales
Peace in Kurdistan campaign
London NW3
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