![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2006\/07\/michael-mcdowel.jpg\" "\\"Michael")
Agence France Presse – Ireland is taking in 180 Iranian Kurds who have been living in various temporary refugee camps for the last 25 years under a UN resettlement scheme, the justice ministry said on Monday. <\/p>\nAgence France Presse – Ireland is taking in 180 Iranian Kurds who have been living in various temporary refugee camps for the last 25 years under a UN resettlement scheme, the justice ministry said on Monday. <\/p>\n
The Kurdish refugees are made up of 11 family groups with individuals ranging in age from two to 73 years. <\/p>\n
Justice Minister Michael McDowell personally welcomed the first group of 65 refugees in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, in the west of Ireland on Monday. <\/p>\n
They had arrived in Ireland 10 days earlier under the UN’s Refugee Resettlement Programme. <\/p>\n
The ministry said the group’s arrival results from McDowell’s announcement in February to accept a large group of refugees from the UNHCR camp near Ruwayshid in Jordan on humanitarian grounds.
Ministry officials selected the group in April and the refugees are undertaking a six-week language and orientation training course before being permanently resettled in Dublin and County Leitrim in the north midlands. <\/p>\n
"This group of Iranian Kurds fled from Iran to Iraq between 1979 and 1981 where they were accommodated in an area known as Al Tash," the ministry said. <\/p>\n
"Following heightened insecurity associated with the Spring 2003 military intervention in Iraq, the group fled to the Jordanian border where they lived in the ‘No Man’s Land’ refugee camp." <\/p>\n
In May 2005 the Jordanian government agreed to transfer the group to the Ruwayshid refugee camp for security reasons." <\/p>\n
"Under Jordanian law, the group were considered as temporary visitors and, as such, were entitled to a maximum of six months residency after which they are vulnerable to refoulement," the ministry said. <\/p>\n
The UNHCR proposed to close the Ruwayshid camp later this year. <\/p>\n
"In all, these families have spent over 25 years in various temporary camp-like sites – the children have known no other kind of existence," the ministry statement said. <\/p>\n
Refugees have been admitted into Ireland from 16 different countries to date under the programme run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. <\/p>\n
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Agence France Presse – Ireland is taking in 180 Iranian Kurds who have been living in various temporary refugee camps for the last 25 years under a UN resettlement scheme, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-regime"},"yoast_head":"\n