UNHCR chief welcomes Albanian offer of humanitarian admission for 200 residents of Camp Hurriya, Iraq
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, on Monday welcomed an offer by the Albanian Government to grant humanitarian admission for 210 residents from Camp Hurriya in Iraq to Albania.
The camp has seen a recent deterioration of the security situation of its residents, with a mortar attack on the camp on February 9th killing eight and wounding dozens, with subsequent threats made against the residents.
Guterres expressed gratitude to the Albanian government saying “This generous offer is a demonstration of international solidarity and burden sharing for a vulnerable population”. He strongly encouraged other”countries to follow Albania’s lead and offer solutions for the camp residents that enable them to relocate outside of Iraq”.
He said “The residents of Camp Hurriya urgently need solutions to relocate out of Iraq”. And he expressed the hope that they”welcome the offer and cooperate to ensure the departure of this important number of people”.
Camp Hurriya, also known as Camp Liberty, has over 3000 residents.
Donn Bobb, United Nations,Duration: 58″,.unmultimedia.org/radio/