Some Palestinian refugees in Iraq to get special IDs

Those registered will be issued with ID cards which identify them as refugees, the Ministry of Displacement and Migration said on 26 August.

"We started the process three months ago and so far we have registered about 10,500 Palestinian refugees [in] Baghdad," said Samir al-Nahi, head of the Ministry's Humanitarian Directorate.

"Our teams will soon head to the northern province of Nineva and the southern province of Basra to register other Palestinian refugees ... Another team will visit al-Walid camp inside Iraqi territory on the border with Syria," al-Nahi told IRIN.

Al-Nahi said the aim is to update government data on the number of Palestinian refugees, and determine their marital status and number of children so they can be covered by the government's aid programs.

He did not say for how many years the new ID cards would be valid but said they would contain a code to facilitate participation in government aid programs.

"It is a gain for them," al-Nahi said.

Dalil al-Qasous, the Palestinian charge d'affairs in Baghdad, welcomed the initiative as a "sign of the brotherhood of the Iraqi people and its government," and called for immediate assistance to be given to Palestinians who "are still going through an acute humanitarian situation at the border camps."

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