IRAN/IRAQ BORDER: UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, SADOKO OGATA, VISITS IRANIAN BORDER

Record ID: 899228

  • Title: IRAN/IRAQ BORDER: UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, SADOKO OGATA, VISITS IRANIAN BORDER
  • Date: 15th April 1991
  • Summary: ZIVEH CAMP, NEAR ORUMIYA, IRAN (VISNEWS - AVAILABLE ALL) AERIALS OF REFUGEE CONVOY REFUGEES WAIT BY HELICOPTER CHEERING (OGATA ON RIGHT BY CAMERA) REFUGEE TALKING TO OGATA (ENGLISH), SAYING HE IS HAPPY IN CAMP MOTHER WITH SMALL BABY
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 15:14
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SAR DASHT/ZIVEH CAMP, IRAN/IRAQ BORDER
  • Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Topics: Conflict,General
  • Reuters ID: LVADATDJH6NG8S5D2RI4138E58ZC
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Sadoko Ogata, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday (April 16) after a visit to the Iranian border with Iraq that massive resources were needed to avert the "human tragedy unfolding right in front of us".

    Ogata, 63, appeared visibly shocked and exhausted by the experience as she spoke to reporters in Tehran before heading to Turkey on Tuesday.

    Ogata said the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had originally planned for 35,000 to 50,000 refugees going to Iran but was now allocating 160 million dollars for one million people over three months.

    Thirty planeloads of UNHCR-supplied aid had already arrived and more flights were on the way. Iran says it is spending 10 million dollars a day on the refugees.

    In Sar Dasht on the Iran/Iraq border the population has swelled from around 20,000 to more than 200,000. Those not in the official refugee camp crowd into any available shelter including garages.

    Others have made sheets of plastic their homes and wash in the street - sanitation is almost non-existent.

    In the local hospital doctors are doing the best they can to help the refugees, many of them children suffering hypothermia, pneumonia and burns thought to be caused by phosphorous from an exploding mine. French doctors have arrive to help but they say it is a near-impossible task.

    At a refugee camp run by the Red Cresent, 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the Iraq border, the inhabitants make do with limited daily bread deliveries and many queue for hours for transport into Sar Dasht.
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