TIMISOARA, April 18, 2009 (WAFA)- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported, Friday, that a group of 59 Palestinian refugees have arrived at a special transit centre in Romania from a desert camp in Iraq.

The refugees arrived at Timisoara International Airport, early Thursday morning, and were then transferred to the pioneering Evacuation Transit Centre. The Romanian government, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) created the facility to provide a temporary haven for refugees facing acute danger and in need of immediate evacuation.

The group, comprising mainly women and children, will remain in the centre for no more than a few months. They had all been living under extremely tough conditions in Al Waleed camp, located close to Iraq's border with Syria.

The tented camp is home to some 1,500 refugees who live with the danger of snakes, rats, scorpions, sandstorms, flooding, fires and extremes of heat and cold. Seventeen people have died in Al Waleed from various ailments since 2007.