Iraqi refugees only dream of home

Suha Philip Ma’ayeh, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: July 01. 2008 12:19AM UAE / June 30. 2008 8:19PM GMT

AMMAN // Tharra Kathem took her three children back to Iraq last week, but not to stay.

The 25-year-old widow, who fled to Jordan in July 2007, went home only to be with her mother who was undergoing an operation to remove shrapnel as a result of an explosion five years ago. She will not go back permanently to Iraq, she said, because the country is still too dangerous.

There is also little reason for her to stay. Her husband was killed when a bomb fell on the Al Amirrya Mosque – where he was praying – in Baghdad two years ago. He was 33. Her brother-in-law, a television sports journalist, was shot dead 11 days later.

Her brother and an aunt were killed when her parents’ home in Baghdad was bombed at the beginning of the war that has displaced 2.5 million Iraqis, and forced another two million to flee to neighbouring countries.

“My only hope is in God and the UN agency to help me seek asylum in Canada with my children and my mother-in-law,” said Mrs Kathem.

“I do not think about returning to Baghdad because there is no security. Where is the security the government is talking about? It doesn’t exist,” she said. “It is only propaganda.”

Nouri al Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, said earlier this month the government had allocated US$195 million (Dh716m) to promote the return of the refugees, claiming the security situation and living conditions in Iraq had improved.

However, Iraqis who fled their war-torn country see little hope of returning, despite reports about a decrease in violence.

Mrs Kathem’s mother-in-law, Thulimiyah Nanja, does not want to return. The memories of her son’s death still upsets her. She also said her house was taken over by a man she believes was a member of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Muqtada al Sadr, the anti-US firebrand cleric.

Mrs Nanja recalls a phone call she received from Baghdad late one night from a man who identified himself as Abu Sa’ad. “‘Um Mohammad, I am staying in your house and you will not see a penny from me, he told me’,” Mrs Nanja said. “‘In fact, you will not see your house in 20 years’,” he told her.

Mrs Nanja said none of her Iraqi friends in Jordan want to return because of the security situation. But Iraqis here have few other options.

Jordan, which has opened its doors to between 500,000 to 750,000 Iraqis, does not grant them refugee status because it has not ratified the 1951 UN convention on refugees.

More than 50,000 Iraqis have registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan since the early 1990s.

Registration, however, does not automatically entitle them to resettlement. In 2007, the UNHCR referred 8,075 cases for resettlement, but only a few were able to find new homes in another country.

Iraqis are not allowed to work in Jordan and many are struggling financially.

Mrs Nanja, who lives with her daughter-in-law, said her rented flat was being paid for by a relative, but the money cannot last forever. She wants to look for a cheaper apartment.

“Resettlement is the only available durable solution for Iraqis in Jordan at present,” said Dana Bajjali, an information assistant for UNHCR in Jordan. “However, this is an option for a very small percentage of the Iraqis registered with the office. It is only offered to the most vulnerable cases with assistance and protection needs.”

Ms Bajjali said the UNHCR would assist those who wanted to return to Iraq, but it is not a policy they are promoting, not until the security condition allows.

However, Saad Hyani, Iraq’s ambassador to Jordan, said the number of Iraqi families who wish to return home was expected to grow in September because the school year had finished.

“Many Iraqi families started to accredit their documents in order to return to Iraq after the security situation improved,” he said. “This applies to both Jordan and Syria.”

Balasem Mohammed, who came to Jordan in 2006 with his family, plans to return home in September.

“When we left Baghdad, it was due to the security situation. But now things have improved,” said Mr Mohammad, an artist who teaches at a private university. “The government is providing people like us with incentives where my salary will triple when I return to work,” he said.

But inflation that swept Jordan in recent months has made it increasingly difficult for Iraqis to survive financially.

With their money dwindling, some Iraqis opted to return home, regardless of the security situation.

In Amman, Munther Muzahem, 48, from Diyala, north-east Baghdad, is putting his two suitcases on the back of a white taxi that will take him back home to his wife and five children whom he has not seen for four years.

Mr Muzahem, who worked in a Jordanian factory, used to earn $220 a month. Of that, he used to pay $90 a month for his one-bedroom apartment, and transfer $200 to his family every two months.

“It is no longer feasible for me to stay here; life is very expensive. I have been stressed. My hair has even started to fall out.”

His fines for overstaying his visa have been waived, under Jordanian measures that exempt Iraqis illegally staying in the country and who wish to return to their country.

While Jordan has welcomed Iraqi refugees since the 1991 Gulf War, it has grown wary since. Iraqi suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman and wounded dozens of people in 2005. The bombings dealt a heavy blow to Jordan’s reputation as an oasis of stability in the region.

Last month, Jordan imposed a visa system on Iraqis to stem their influx, which the government said has cost the country more than $2.2 billion over the past three years.



smaayeh@thenational.ae