Stateless Refugees

When you ain't got no home, you're fucked.

Hameda Um Firas has lived most of her 70-odd years as a refugee -- now she is stranded in a tent again at Iraq's border with Syria where hundreds of Palestinians have fled to escape violence in Baghdad.

"We escaped in fear of our lives. My granddaughter was decapitated by a missile attack and our sons were killed, we fled Iraq to spare our lives," she said, barely able to contain tears of anger at Arab countries she said should be helping.

[...]

While the numbers are relatively small, van Genderen Stort said the Palestinians were in a uniquely difficult situation because without passports they can not go to Syria, Jordan or other neighbouring countries where many Iraqis have fled.

"The difference with Palestinians is they have nowhere to go," she said. "A lot of them have expired identity papers which the Iraqis are not extending because it's not their priority."

"They're in a Catch-22. They're targeted, they have death threats, they have these raids, but they can't flee and when they flee they either have to do it illegally or they are stuck at the border," she said.