Gorilla’s Guides

The plight of Iraqi refugees is now worse than ever, with millions struggling to survive in desperate conditions and with little hope of finding sanctuary.

While the crisis continues, the world community, especially Western countries, have not only failed to help but are also erecting fresh obstacles to prevent the dispossessed men, women and children from settling on their shores, says a new report by Amnesty International.

Many governments have attempted to justify their hardline stance by citing supposed improvements in the security situation in Iraq. But after a marked decline, the level of violence is rising again. The numbers killed each month fell from 1,800 in August 2007 to 541 in January 2008. However, in March and April alone, more than 2,000 people, mostly civilians, died during clashes between US and Iraqi government forces and the Shia militia Mehdi Army.

The Iraqi diaspora is now one of the largest in modern times, with more than two million people fleeing abroad. But the ferocious strife and the breakdown in law and order have led to another wave of about 2.7 million fleeing their homes but unable to escape the country. Many of these have moved to Baghdad, putting further strain on a shattered infrastructure and adding to the city’s sectarian tensions. The situation in terms of numbers and conditions for the displaced people has deteriorated dramatically in the past two years, Amnesty claims.

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BAGHDAD — Iraq, which has the world’s third-biggest oil reserves, is making billions of dollars in oil exerts thanks to record-setting prices. Still, many of its citizens sell parts of their own bodies just to survive.

“I couldn’t see my children crying for food and I can not get them at even bread,” Ali Hassnawi, a 34-year-old Baghdad resident, told IslamOnline.net.

“One day a friend of mine told me he had sold his kidney and I decided to do the same,” he recalled.

“I got $1,500 dollars for it, two months later my wife got a better payment for hers. She got $3,000 because the man who bought it was nearly dying.”  

Abject poverty in oil-rich Iraq has driven many like Hassnawi and his wife to a growing organs black market, where kidney is the most sought-after. 

Prices vary between $500 to $5,000 dollars depending on and urgent the kidney is needed.

According to the Health Ministry, renal disease is common in the country and more than 7,000 Iraqis currently need urgent kidney transplants.

“The lives of many Iraqis are threatened because haemodialysis machine are old and many aren’t working properly,” stressed Taha Abdel-Rahman, a ministry media officer.

“We have a long list of patients requesting kidneys and in many times when they can get the organ, they are already dead.”

Iraq, which is a member of OPEC and has the world’s third-biggest oil reserves, earned $38 billion in oil export revenue last year.

For 2008, the country has already raked in $20 billion from oil shipments just through April, according to the US Energy Department.

Catastrophic

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Karbala, May 14, (VOI)- 12-year-old Waad was not the only child selling cloth rugs for drivers at a traffic light in the Shiite sacred city of Karbala. Scores of boys and girls his age stand near traffic lights areas all over Iraq to do same.

No sooner had the traffic policeman stopped the traffic movement than Waad rushed to offer drivers his goods for sale.

“My father died in an explosion a year ago, and I was forced to go out for work to earn living for my five-member-family,” Waad told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).

The boy who knew no entertainment bitterly adds, “I come out everyday in the early morning and will not be able to return home before I earn money enough to keep our life rolling.”

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BAGHDAD — For nations the young generation always holds the hope for a better future but with thousands of its children forced out of school into the labour market to make ends meet, Iraq seems to be an exception.

“My mother told me that I had to leave school and even knowing there isn’t choice, I tried to convince by showing my good marks in math and science but it just made her angrier,” says Waleed Saleh, 11.

One year ago his father, a waiter, was killed in a suicide attack on his restaurant in downtown Baghdad.

Saleh, the elder of his four brothers, had to find a job to help support the family with his house-keeper mother.

“She found me a job as helper in a carpentry factor near our home,” he said.

Child labour has been increasing in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion largely because of the spread of poverty, unemployment and widows, observers say.

There are no accurate estimates on child labour but a 2006 UNICEF survey put the percentage at 11 in the 10-14 age group.

“It’s very difficult to know whether this number is increasing as a result of the deaths of so many family wage-earners between 2006 and 2007,” said Claire Hajaj, Chief of External Relations for UNICEF.

“However, anecdotal data tells us that many families are being pushed into poverty as a result of conflict and displacement,” she added.

“Boys are more likely to work than girls in an average of 12 percent versus 9 percent and the problem is far higher in rural areas where poverty is most intense.”

Five years after the US-led invasion, the daily lives of Iraqis have worsened with millions having insufficient access to clean water, sanitation, electricity and health care.

With estimates putting the death toll at between 100,000 and one million, millions of families are left without bread-winners.

Sons or Fathers

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