Brazil will settle some 100 Palestinians who fled Iraq to Jordan, UNHCR

Brazil has accepted to resettle about 100 Palestinians who have fled Iraq to Jordan and live in a camp near the Iraqi borders, a United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday.

The Palestinians, who fled Iraq after the U.S.-led war, have been living in Ruweishid refugee camp in Jordan, some 350 kilometers (217 miles) east of Amman.

The camp was founded months before the war started in 2003 to provide shelter to the refugees. It has hosted more than 2,000 refugees from different countries, many of whom were resettled in a third country.

Up to 22 Palestinian families will be settled in Sao Paulo and 18 families will go to Rio Grande do Sul, in the southeast and southern regions of Brazil, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

The families, who are expected to leave in September in three batches, will receive medical care, rented accommodations and assistance for two years. The children will attend language classes.

Young men and women will be offered jobs and the unaccompanied elderly people will be settled in a home for medical treatment, the agency said.

With the departure of the 100 Palestinians, 20 people, mostly Iraqis and Iranian Kurds will remain in the camp.