Chile Receives Palestinian From Iraq

The US war in Iraq has resulted in masses of refugees, many of them Palestinian-Iraqis, who now reside mostly in desert camps in the Iraq Syria border. After the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees pleaded with its member nations, the government of Chile said it would allow 117 Palestinians to enter the South American country. Last April, a handful of Palestinian refugee families arrived in Chile.

The small city of La Calera some 50 miles north of Santiago saw the arrival of 8 Palestinian families totaling 38 people, most of them children. The town was chosen because of the large Chilean-Palestinian resident community that began settling in these parts some 100 years ago.

Tamer Khalifah, who was a history teacher in Iraq, found work as a school hall monitor at a local public school, in La Calera, aptly named Palestine Public School. In basic English, he tells me that he is happy to come to Chile. He adds that he is pleased to have left behind living in a tent at the Al Tanf camp in the Iraqi-Syria border.



To Khalifah Chile is a place to begin a new life, particularly for his children. A history teacher in Iraq, Khalifah now works as a school hall monitor in the aptly named Palestine Public School. A school that is now home to all school-age Palestinian refugee children.

The 38 refugees are in their first month of a two-year settlement program. The adults will be placed in jobs after six months of language training program.

The Government is also providing housing, heath care and education for the children.

UNCHR's director in Chile has praised the settlement program calling it to date a success.

Nancy Ponce is the school principal at the Palestine Public School. She is also a neighbour to the 8 families settled in La Calera.

She says having the new students in school has been a rewarding experience for her and for the entire school community. She tells me there has been a normal integration process. She says Chilean students have taken under their wings the new students. "The girls take the new students by their hands, they teach them, play with them.

Ponce describes the integration process a normal. But Ponce cautions that regular Chilean society is not the same as her school. Adults will have a tougher time integrating.

Specially trained resettlement workers are assigned to each refugee group and are monitoring the settlement program. In La Calera the group is monitored by social worker Monica Chahuan.

She says the local Chilean-Palestinian community here is helping the new refugees, for example they have arranged jobs for the new arrivals as soon as they finish language training, this as a way to remember and repay their grandparents who fled Palestine some 100 years ago.

Chahuan says it has been an intense, difficult, beautiful experience. She says, they now have their own IDs, they are slowly becoming part of the community making friends among with the locals.

Two weeks ago, a second group of Palestinians arrived from the Al-Tanf camp. They settled near La Calera in the small city of San Felipe. Two remaining groups will be settled in the coming weeks in Santiago neighbourhoods that have a high concentration of Chilean Palestinians.