Iraq War Refugees Trapped in Limbo Between Countries

AMMAN, Jordan, May 11, 2006 — -- Stuck in a 21st century lawless no man's land, Khabet Mohammedi depends on the charity of truck drivers.

"Every morning we wake up and go around to find water and other things from the truck drivers. We are living by begging," he explains.

Mohammedi is one of about 200 Iraqi refugees living in a lawless swath of desert between the borders of Jordan and Iraq. The area is not under any governmental jurisdiction.

The refugees are stuck there because Jordan won't let them into the country. And they refuse to move to an alternative camp in Iraq that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has offered.

The way to no man's land is littered with mirages. Shimmering beds of water appear every few hundred feet, only to evaporate instantly when you move closer.

In reality, the landscape is flat and barren, with chunks of black rock covering the sand. Scattered throughout the terrain are knee-high rock pyramids, likely the playtime structures of bored Bedouin children.

Only one road leads directly into the camp from Jordan and runs through to Iraq. Mostly the route is used by truck drivers ferrying goods into a war zone. These are the people supporting the refugees.

The people in the no man's land are Iranian Kurds. Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, they lived in a different refugee camp about 90 miles from Baghdad. Most left Iran in 1982, or were born in Iraq.

After the fall of Baghdad, they received threats.

"I saw about 20 armed men with their faces covered," Abdullah Hassan Zadeh told Human Rights Watch in May 2003. "We tried to confront them, but they threatened us with their weapons and told us to go away."

About 1,100 of those Iranian Kurds fled Iraq right away. Others tried to stick it out. But eventually, fear for their lives outweighed a resolve to stay in the country.

In January 2005, about 190 of these Kurds decided to leave Iraq for Jordan.

Others from their camp in Iraq had successfully done the same. But this group's timing was bad. When they arrived at the border, Jordan had had enough of refugees.