About 3,400 members of the group were at Ashraf at the beginning of the year. About two-thirds have since moved to Camp Hurriya in Baghdad, but no one has left Ashraf since May 6.
The Iraqi government is furious and demands the group leave so Iraq can take back the land. Baghdad has set numerous deadlines that the Mojahedin-e Khalq have ignored. The Bagh-dad government has then just set another deadline. One was set for July 20. When the Mojahedin didn’t move, the Iraqi government announced that July 31 was the deadline. The Mojahedin didn’t move by then either.
Last week State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said it was long past the time for the Mojahedin to move. He rejected Mojahedin complaints that Camp Hurriya is not a fit site for living.
Ventrell pointed out such things air conditioners and vehicles equipped for the disabled, which the Mojahedin had been demanding for months, have now been supplied at Camp Hurriya.
He said US officials have inspected the camp recently and did not find the “dire humanitarian conditions” alleged by the Mojahedin.
“It is clear that the quality of life [at Hurriya] exceeds accepted humanitarian standards,” Ventrell said.
“The continued intransigence of the residents’ leadership in placing preconditions and making demands prior to any agreement to relocate further Ashraf residents is unacceptable,” Ventrell said.
The bottom line, however, is that the whole point of the shift to Hurriya is so that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees can process the Mojahedin for transfer as refugees to other countries around the world. But no country has yet announced any willingness to accept the Mojahedin as refugees.