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Irak’s Exodus Of Pain

There are two recent resources for people who want to learn something about the experiencse of Iraki refugees. UNHCR have released a video report that lasts 7 minutes and 27 seconds it is in three formats:

1. Flash
2. Real Player
3. Windows Media Player

In it refugees talk about their experiences. I urge you not to turn your eyes away Is less than 7½ minutes of your life too much to give?

Link to page with the video.

Iraq
The continued violence in Iraq is creating a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. It is estimated that more than 2 million people have left the country and another 1.9 million are displaced inside Iraq. Each uprooted person has a personal and tragic story to tell.

Source: UNHCR | Iraq

The second resource is a feature article from the independent Iraki News agency Aswat Al Irak (Voices of Iraq) I have posted it below in full with links both to the Arabic and English copies of the article.

Haleema

Irakis in Jordan

Amman, June 1, (VOI) - Although hundreds thousands of Iraqis who fled their country of violence and death threats feel somehow more secure for their lives and families in Amman, most of them have the feeling that they are socially under threat, for fear of deportation and denial of work permits that may guarantee them pennies to live.

Z. al-Suodani, an Iraqi young man in Amman, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) “the Jordanian Labor Ministry rejected an application for a work permit without giving me reasons. I was obliged to work without a legal license in order to keep life going, though I fear that one day Jordanian immigrant police may catch and deport me back to Iraq.”

Other Iraqis, who do not want to take the risk of working without a permit, depend on subsidiaries from their families from all over the world.

Declining to give his name an officer from the Iraqi army under Saddam said, “I came here to live in peace rather than for a job. I am a Christian Iraqi. I escaped Iraq after I received repeated death threats.”

The former officer used to live in the once Christian crowded neighborhood of al-Doura in southern Baghdad. Hundreds left the neighborhood after receiving death threats to convert.

“I spend all my time looking for a job to sustain part of my residence in Amman, but in vain,” the former officer said.

Asked how he manages his living expenses, the officer replied “I rely on subsidiaries sent from my relatives in Australia.”

Um Nour, an Iraqi lady who left the country after her husband was killed in Baghdad, told VOI, “I used to work as an accountant while in Iraq. I applied for a job at a private company in Jordan but they told me sorry, because the vacancy of ‘accountant’ should be filled by Jordanian nationals only, according to the rules of the Jordanian authorities.”

Um Nour was obliged to work as a saleswoman at a supermarket, hoping that she may get a work permit that will let her live in Jordan for a while.

Iraqis, who fear deportation if the Jordanian authorities do not renew permission to stay in the Jordanian territories, lodge refugee applications at the UNHCR office in Amman.

Um Nour said, “I am also waiting for a reply from the UNCHR concerning a refugee application. I have no other choice but to wait.”

A young Iraqi man who preferred to be named N.S said, “as a fresh graduate of Baghdad Medicine College, I thought I could easily find a job in Jordan after I left the country following a death threat directed towards me and my family in the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood in western Baghdad.”

“I am now imprisoned in my apartment in Amman, fearing deportation after the three residence permits granted to me by Jordanian authorities expired.”

N.S., who seemed disappointed in not finding a job, said, “regrettably all Iraqis in Jordan share the same suffering.”

Another Iraqi youth, who asked to use T.J. as a code name, told VOI “we work in secret as we try to earn a living for our families who fled Iraq because of violence, and the authorities here will not grant us work permits.”

“My employer is a Palestinian who has lived in Baghdad and has sympathy for me, but he fears my arrest at his factory if Jordanian police inspect the workplace,” T.J. added.

Such suffering is not limited to the young Iraqi men who fail to receive work permits, but also applies to investors who have started to feel homesick.

An Iraqi businessman, who preferred to be referred to as A.A., said, “Though I have everything here, I started longing for my friends, house and Baghdad.”

“Yes I have a work permit but I am not happy here,” he noted.

Economic experts said in late 2006 Iraqi capital streamed into Jordan, pushing up economic growth by 8%.
According to the Jordan Times, the arrival of 50,000 Iraqi families in Jordan contributed $2 billion to the Jordanian market.

Although scores of Iraqi investors live in Jordan with millions of dollars of their wealth flowing to the local market, thousands of their home citizens live under the poverty rate with no assets and no work permits in Jordan.

Source Arabic: اصوات العراق - العراقيون في عمان.. بين البحث عن تصريح عمل والخوف من الترحيل

Source English: Aswat Aliraq (English) Iraqis in Jordan… fears of deportation, denial of work permits