RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- At least 384 Iraqi refugees returned home voluntarily late Monday after spending 13 years in a camp near the Saudi-Iraqi border, a security source said.
The commander of al-Rafha refugee camp, Brig. Khaled al-Wuseifer, said the refugees constituted the seventh batch of Iraqis returning home from Saudi Arabia "which provided them with hospitality for more than 13 years."
"They passed through the al-Rakii crossing into Kuwait and then into southern Iraq," he said.
Another group of 650 refugees had returned home Oct. 21 as part of organized voluntary repatriation of Iraqis who had fled their homes in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war.
Al-Rafha camp was home for some 33,000 Iraqi refugees when it was first set up in 1991. Over the years, some 25,000 refugees departed after securing passages to Europe, the United States and Australia.
