Tears flowed and long-parted relatives embraced on Wednesday as more than 200 Iraqis set foot in their homeland again after 13 years of exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. ‘‘I feel like my soul has returned to my body,’’ said Ali Salman at the Umm Qasr border crossing. Like most of the 240 men, women and children who were repatriated by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Salman is a Shi’ite Muslim who fled to Saudi Arabia after a failed 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein. Other returnees were ex-Iraqi soldiers who defected during the 1991 Gulf War. The refugees sought asylum in Saudi where they lived in relative luxury at the frontier Rafha camp. But the idea of returning home remained a remote dream until US-led forces ousted Saddam in April. The 240 returnees were among a group of 5,200 Iraqis in Rafha who had held hunger strikes to pressure the authorities to repatriate them. ‘‘Today marks the beginning of the end for the Rafha refugee camp,’’ said UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane. ‘‘We hope to repatriate everyone as soon as possible.’’ Rafha residents were given a monthly stipend by the Saudi government, food rations and air-conditioned houses. But the lack of jobs and their inability to practice Shi’ite traditions in the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom fuelled the frustration of many in the camp. (Reuters)
