Gorilla’s Guides

More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP).

In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society.

No security

Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women’s rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation."

In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination.

According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back.

Echoing al-Azzawi’s words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled.

"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice."

Criminal levels of poverty

The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("Iraqi Women Under Occupation" [PDF]).

The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees.

IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence," 6 April 2006).

The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq’s middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty.

Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes."

Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported.

Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty.

According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation’s crimes," al-Azzawi said.

Death, torture and enforced disappearance

No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million.

According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq" [PDF]).

It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women’s Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows.

Inside Iraq’s jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added.

Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them.

One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("Girls Education in Iraq 2010" [PDF]).

"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi.

Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women’s rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family.

"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added.

Forced Islamization of society

It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose.

The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past.

Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered."

Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated — as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers — it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation’s goals have failed.

Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis’ rights in general are in fact women.

"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope."

انتقد السيد احمد الصافي ممثل المرجع الديني السيد علي السيستاني الأداء الحكومي، وقال إنه لم يتمكن من معالجة مشاكل كبيرة يعاني منها العراق.
ودعا الصافي خلال خطبة صلاة الجمعة التي اقيمت بالصحن الحسيني الشريف إلى وضع حلول جذرية للمشاكل التي يعاني منها العراق، ولا سيما في مجال البطالة والطاقة،مطالبا المسؤولين إلى الاستفادة من تجارب الدول الأخرى في حل مشاكلها.
وأضاف الصافي أن الكثير من المشاريع التي أقرت خلال الفترة الماضية لم تنجح وظلت حبرا على ورق، وقال " نقرأ ونسمع ونشاهد مشاريع وعقودا تمضى. ولكن هذا لا يُصدق حقيقة المشروع، فإمضاء المشروع بحاجة إلى تصديق من الواقع الأرضي للمشروع".
وبين الصافي أن بعض المشاريع تلاشت ومع ذلك ما زالت بعض الوزارات تتحدث عنها باعتبارها إنجازات. وقال " بعض المشاريع انتهت وتبين أنها لن تطبق ولكن بالنتيجة أن هذا المشروع قد يحسب انجازا لهذه الوزارة أو تلك".
ودعا الصافي إلى الاستفادة من الطاقات البشرية وتوفير فرص عمل للعاطلين ليتمكنوا من خدمة بلدهم. وقال إن "أعدادا كبيرة من الشباب، ممن يملكون قدرة وطاقة للخدمة ويطرقون الأبواب ولكن لا احد يسمعهم".

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees have been stuck in Syria for years. They are running out of money and into trouble.  

Burud (39) walks with a limp. She lifted her long dress to show that she has been missing a foot ever since she came too close to an exploding bomb in Baghdad in 2005. After she recuperated from her injuries – most of them, that is, she is still missing a hand and her body is full of shards left by the bomb. Burud fled to Syria, where she remains to this day.

Most refugees are Sunnis

According to UN estimates, Syria harbours up to 900,000 Iraqi refugees.

Of all registered refugees, 65 percent are from Baghdad province.

Most, (62 percent) are Sunnis. Only 19 percent are Shiites. Slightly less (11 percent) of refugees are Christian.

In Iraq, 60 percent of the population is Shia, 20 percent are Sunni and one percent is Christian.

She lives in the narrow Sha’ab street, out in the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk, with her six children, aged 4 to 17. For Burud, going back is not an option. “I have gone through enough,” she said. “And besides, we were kicked out of our house by Shiite militias.”

Hundreds of thousands fled for Syria

Burud is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees who have been living in Syria for years. Most of them do not live in refugee camps but have found a place amongst the Syrians. About 163,000 refugees are currently registered with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, but it is estimated that an additional 400,000 to 800,000 have not. “Perhaps they don’t need our help. Or perhaps they don’t trust us,” said Farah Dakhlallah, a spokesperson for the UNHCR in Damascus.

After the2006 bombing of Al Askari mosque in Samara set off a wave of violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq, refugees started pouring into Syria in huge numbers. At one point, tens of thousands were arriving weekly. Since 2008, Iraq has slowly become less violent. The number of people killed dropped from 2,000 a month to somewhere between 200 and 300. But, like Burud, many refugees have no intention of returning. They no longer have homes to go back to, or remain wary of conditions in their home country.

The UN has yet to give the green light for them to return. “A lot of problems remain with general security,” Dakhlallah said, sitting in the UNHCR’s Damascus office. “In addition, power and potable water are not readily available. Unemployment levels are high. We do not believe that the conditions allow for a safe, permanent return, particularly in the five central provinces. A lot of work remains to be done there.”

The Iraqi government promised large sums of money, housing and jobs to returning refugees. “But it has failed to make good on those promises,” said Filippo Rossi of the UNHCR registration centre in Douma. Many people have returned without any assistance; the UN assumes some 60,000 did in the last year.

New refugees are still coming

But at the registration centre, dozens of new arrivals still awaited their turn. Every day, some 20 to 30 families, 150 a week, still check in here. Approximately 60 percent are fresh from Iraq. The others have been in Syria for a while but only register once they run out of money and need support. The slower influx of refugees means that their total number is now declining, but the Iraqis left here are doing worse and worse. “Most are middle-class Iraqis who have been pushed into the margins of society,” Dakhlallah said.

Officially, refugees are not allowed to work in Syria. “Which forces them to work illegally,” said Dakhlallah. They lose their dignity and their families fall apart. Domestic violence becomes more frequent. Generally speaking, a lot of negative phenomena are on the rise: child labour, forced marriages, prostitution.”

Mazen (50) is a Sunni from the Al-Ghazaliya neighbourhood in Baghdad. “I had a prospering car rental business,” he recalled. “But Shiite militias took over my neighbourhood in 2006. I was threatened and told to leave. One day, militias gained access to my home by posing as a regular patrol and raped my wife. I took her, my daughter [now 14] and my two sons [18 and 21] and fled here. By now we have gone through all of our savings, and there is no work here for us.”

Mazen does not want to go back. Al-Ghazaliya is still under Shia control. “If we returned we would be killed. Here we are safe, but dependent on outside help. I have lost my dignity,” he said.

All registered refugees are entitled to food rations consisting of rice, sugar and tea. Vulnerable groups, single mothers especially, also receive financial assistance of some 80 euros a month. They pay only a nominal fee for basic medical care and their children can attend school for free.

The UNHCR is trying hard to prevent Syria’s better healthcare from drawing ‘medical tourism’ from Iraq. The UN supports Syrian healthcare and education by building new schools, for instance, and introducing new educational methods. “It is important to continue this assistance,” Dakhlallah said, “so Damascus won’t suddenly decide it has had enough. So far, Syria has been more than generous.” Still, the UNHCR expects that international financial contributions will dwindle as the world’s attention shifts away from Iraq and its refugees. “Iraq is no longer the world’s biggest problem, but this would be exactly the wrong moment to pull out. A lot of refugees can’t return,” Dakhlallah said.

Burud’s husband returned to Iraq in 2006 to earn money. “He is risking his life,” Burud said. “At a certain point he was kidnapped ad by Shiite militias, held captive for three months and tortured.”

“In Iraq we are humiliated. We have asked our government for help, but only Shiites or people with wasta [connections] receive it. I am not going back.”

Source: nrc.nl – International – Features – Iraqi refugees in Syria not going back soon

اصدرت وزارة العمل والشؤون الاجتماعية اليوم الخميس احصائية بعدد العاطلين عن العمل لغاية شهر كانون الاول الماضي، اذ بلغ عددهم اكثر من مليون و500 الف عاطل في عموم المحافظات، بحسب بيان للوزارة.
ونقل البيان عن مصدر مسؤول في دائرة العمل والتدريب المهني التابعة لوزارة العمل، قوله ان عدد العاطلين عن العمل “للفترة من 16/9/2003 ولغاية 31/12/2009 قد بلغت مليون و554 الفا و39 عاطلا وبلغ عدد الذكور منهم مليون و359 الفا و453 عاطلا ومن الاناث 194 الفا و586عاطلة عن العمل حيث سجل 153 الفا و652 عاطلا خلال عام 2009″.
واضاف البيان ان "اعداد المشتغلين عن طريق مراكز التشغيل، قد وصل الى 229 الفا و119 مشتغلا وكان عدد الذكور 213 الفا و81 مشتغلا و16 الفا و38 مشتغلة من الاناث المسجلات في مراكز العمل والتدريب المهني في بغداد والمحافظات".

Increased co-ordination among humanitarian organisations should be blended with a more realistic view of what is possibly achievable in the context of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in countries like Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Niger, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen, the third conference for humanitarian organisations in OIC member-states was told yesterday.

Delegates highlighted the situations in their respective countries, noting that the lack of security has been causing numerous challenges to their humanitarian work.

The Afghanistan delegation pointed out that three decades of conflict, which have killed over a million people, orphaned and disabled another million of them, has caused poverty, food insecurity, drought, as well as environmental degradation caused by uncontrolled war violations.

The Afghani delegation said that many humanitarian actors have been working in Afghanistan, even as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) faced many challenges.

Aid agency staff have been increasingly targeted by the Taliban and other insurgents for their perceived support of alien political agendas at odds with those of the militia.

The Palestinian delegation explained that the level of co-ordination between the numerous humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza was very low.

“Co-operation is limited to a low co-ordination through few irregular meetings, to co-operate on seasonable projects such as in Ramadan,” a Gaza delegate said, adding: “No meeting has yet included any information sharing about the needs of affected people.”

The Palestinian delegation explained that the Israeli blockade of Gaza has been affecting the work of the humanitarian organisations.

The Iraqi delegation said that the increasing number of orphans, widows and captives, as well as unemployment, poverty and refugees, were examples of the deteriorating situation there.

“The humanitarian situation in Iraq is very complex as it includes both urgent needs and those of the long-term,” said a delegate.

The delegation explained that the differences in the views of the humanitarian organisations’ priorities in Iraq, were a challenge for the situation there.

The Somali delegation pointed out to the absolute absence of co-operation among the humanitarian organisations of the member-states in the OIC, noting that the armed conflicts have been also affecting their work.

The delegates agreed that the starting point for any co-ordinated efforts would be, besides a functional co-ordination structure, knowledge of available resources, of the assistance needs of the population and an overview of ongoing activities.

They agreed on the urgent need to establish a joint and commonly shared data system, and on an overview how resources presently are allocated.

Assistant Foreign Minister HE Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi said at the conclusion of the conference that Qatar would be supporting all humanitarian efforts for aid to reach people in the Islamic countries and other regions of the world.

He announced that the conference to support and develop the Comoros Islands is to start tomorrow, which is an effort oriented in the same humanitarian direction.

OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddine Ihasan Oglu said that NGOs as well as governmental and private sectors should join hands in their humanitarian work in the Islamic counties.

Source: Lack of security hampering work, say aid agencies | By Ourouba Hussein | Gulf Times –  – Qatar

شكل مجلس محافظة البصرة لجنة مشتركة لدعم الإستراتيجية الوطنية للتخفيف من الفقر في العراق، بحسب بيان للمكتب الإعلامي للنائب الاول للمحافظ الخميس.
وأوضح البيان ان “النائب الاول لمحافظ البصرة نزار ربيع الجابري قال ان تشكيل اللجنة يأتي دعما للإستراتيجية الوطنية لتخفيف الفقر في العراق ولتفعيل وتطبيق كتاب الأمانة العامة لمجلس الوزراء لدعم الإجراءات التي تضمنتها الإستراتيجية وما ينبثق عنها بالتنسيق مع وزارة التخطيط والتعاون الإنمائي”.
وأضاف “يرأس اللجنة العليا المشتركة النائب الاول لمحافظ البصرة نزار ربيع الجابري وعضوية عدد من أعضاء مجلس المحافظة رئيس اللجنة الأمنية علي غانم حنون و عضو لجنة الصحة والبيئة سكنه فلك المالكي، ورئيس لجنة التخطيط والمتابعة وليد حميد كيطان، ورئيس لجنة العلاقات العامة ومنظمات المجتمع المدني حسن كاظم الراشد، ورئيس لجنة التطوير والاعمار مصطفى عطية رسن ، ورئيس لجنة التنمية الاقتصادية محمود طعان نجم”.
واشار الى ان “الجابري بين ان تطبيق الإستراتيجية الوطنية من خلال تنفيذ سياسة البرامج والأنشطة في تخفيف الفقر في البصرة عبر دعم تنفيذ بعض الأنشطة الإستراتيجية ضمن مشاريع خاصة يشارك في دعمها المانحون والمنظمات الاقليمية والدولية”.
وخلص البيان إلى ان تطبيق الإستراتيجية يأتي ايضا عن طريق “العمل على استكمال العناصر التفصيلية للإستراتيجية بما تحتويه من تفاصيل لمؤشرات المراقبة والتقويم ، وتنفيذ مسح للأسر الفقيرة في المحافظة وتنظيم احصائيات ودراسات لرصد وتقويم الاستراتيجية وتنظيم قواعد للبيانات الادارية ذات الصلة بالإستراتيجية في المؤسسات الحكومية المعنية.”

BAGHDAD, 8 November 2009 (IRIN) - More and more people in Iraq are being affected by food insecurity, a senior official has said.

Reduced domestic agricultural production, inflation, unemployment and a crumbling system of subsidized food distributions have hit poor people the hardest.

"There is still a big percentage of Iraqi people who can’t secure enough food. With unemployment running at 18-20 percent they can’t buy what they need," said Muna Turki Al-Mousawi, head of the state-run Centre for Market Research and Consumer Protection, adding that about 20 percent of Iraq’s 25 million people live below the poverty line.

Domestic agricultural production – already affected by reduced rainfall – has also been hit by a lack of government support and lax controls on cheap food imports, with which farmers cannot compete in some cases, she said.

On 31 August, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Iraq had its worst cereal harvest in a decade and that its wheat harvest was set to fall to one million tonnes, from an average of 3.5 million tonnes per annum over the past decade. Domestic rice production also fell from an average 500,000 tons a year to an estimated 250,000 tons this year.

Iraq imports more than 80 percent of its food needs, al-Mousawi told IRIN.

The crumbling subsidized food distribution scheme which was set up in the 1990s and designed to supply basic food items to poor people as part of the UN oil-for-food programme is making matters worse. At least 60 percent of the population depends on the subsidized food, according to Iraqi Trade Ministry figures.

There are quality and distribution problems: "We have comments on the quality of the food items. And it never reaches the families in time or in sufficient quantities. Some of its items are only distributed 8-10 months a year," she said, contrasting the current situation with that prior to 2003 when "there was a kind of stability with regard to food security nationwide as there was control of imported food and government support to agriculture."

Government support for farmers?

After 2003, she said, the borders were opened to random imports without real scrutiny, and government support for farmers diminished, adversely affecting domestic production, which could not compete with cheaper imports.

"The government has realized these dangers over the past two years and started to support the farmers and impose restrictions on food imports, and yet we are still far from the self-sufficiency we had, as we are only producing 20 percent of our food needs," she said.

Three draft laws which aim to protect local production and regulate imports, if approved, could dramatically improve the situation, al-Mousawi said.

Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Iraqi Planning Ministry’s Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), estimates that about 23 percent of Iraqis live below the poverty line, meaning they earn US$66 a month or less.

"One quarter of the whole population is not a small percentage. It needs a lot of thinking and economic strategies to help change this reality and improve it," he said.

COSIT is set to present a national five-year anti-poverty strategy to the Cabinet by the end of November.

IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Iraq | IRAQ: Food insecurity on the rise, says official | Early Warning Food Security | News Item

They are kept under lock and key by their employers and face resentment from province’s unemployed.

Hasan’s 14-hour day starts before dawn, when he gets up to clean his employer’s house and prepare breakfast.

As one of a number of servants for a prominent family in Iraq’s western Anbar province, Hasan scrubs floors, polishes desks, baby-sits, serves tea to foreign dignitaries and even cares for the family’s pets.

Hasan has worked for the family for eight months but has never left the property to explore Ramadi, the capital of the once-volatile Anbar province. He knows little of what goes on outside of the compound, which is exactly the way his employer wants it.

The routine can be dull. But what irritates him most is the traditional Arab clothing – including a box hat and a dagger slung through his belt – he must slip into when guests arrive.

In his home country of Bangladesh, Hasan only ever saw the uniforms in movies.

“I never imagined that I would work in Iraq in the house of a VIP,” he said. “I didn’t even like to see these clothes on television, let alone wear them. But I’ve gotten used to this new situation, even with the difficulties I face.”

Hasan earns 400 US dollars per month. The pay is generous, he says, compared to the salaries of other migrant servants in the city.

As in other Iraqi cities, thousands of foreign workers are taken to Anbar to do low-wage, unskilled work. Desperate for employment, Bangladeshis are snapping up such jobs in western Iraq, despite the region’s reputation for violence.

According to the Anbar labour commission, an estimated 15,000 male and female workers have been brought to Anbar province this year. Nearly 90 per cent are Bangladeshis, who work as waiters, servants, nannies, cleaners and farmers.

Many of the foreign labourers in Anbar were employed in the United Arab Emirates until the global financial crisis hit last year, leaving unskilled employees scrambling for work.

Iraq was one of the few places offering “good jobs and good salaries”, said Khaleda, a woman from Bangladesh who works for a family in Ramadi.

The employment of foreign workers has bred resentment among some in Anbar. The provincial council estimates there are 15,000 unemployed Iraqi men in the region, a former al-Qaeda stronghold now controlled by Sunni tribes.

Some worry that unemployment may threaten security in the province, driving young men to join gangs and extremist networks. While the United States and Iraqi militaries have stemmed the flow of weapons and fighters entering Anbar from Syria, trafficking along the western border remains one of Iraq’s top security concerns.

Sunni tribes that backed insurgent groups turned on them in exchange for financial backing and power from the US military and the Iraqi government. But their new alliances made them vulnerable to retaliatory attacks, and some of Anbar’s tribal elite worry Iraqi employees cannot be trusted.

Bangladeshi workers have gained a reputation for having a strong work ethic and making few demands. More importantly, as outsiders they are reliant on their employers.

“Foreign workers don’t ask for leave, and they don’t ask to be exempted from any duties,” said Hasan’s employer. “They’ll do anything from cleaning the toilet to serving guests. And they don’t reveal the secrets in the house like Iraqi workers, who always dawdle and chat about the fortunes and personal relationships of the households they work in.”

“One of my former Iraqi workers was a spy for my ex-wife. I fired him after I found out he was telling her about my relationships and my travels,” he added with a smile. “Another servant seemed sympathetic to insurgents, so I fired him too. One can remain at ease when hiring Bangladeshi workers.”

The employer’s household is spacious and lavishly decorated, but his servants say they sleep on the floor and eat the family’s leftovers, while the gruelling work and long hours leave them exhausted.

"[My boss] or one of his assistants usually wakes me up with a kick if I’m late,” said Syed, another Bangladeshi servant in the household.

“Spitting in my face is one of worst things that I have to deal with. [My boss] doesn’t use his hands, but he spits and uses bad language if he’s angry.”

Bangladeshi workers often speak English and broken Arabic. Syed says they are mocked by their employers and their guests.

“They think we can’t understand what they say,” he said. “But we have to take it because we’re paid well compared to what workers get in other places.”

He says he believes he has a good relationship with his employer and, defying the stereotype of a passive Bangladeshi worker, complains openly and regularly to him. He says his boss can be insulting but values his excellent tea and hubbly-bubbly.

Syed’s sister works for another elite family, but both are not allowed to leave their homes to visit.

“The only reason that I would leave this house is if I died,” he said. “Then they will send me home, at my expense.”

The employer says he is protecting his servants by keeping them inside the compound.

"Servants here don’t understand how dangerous the streets are,” he said. “I’m sometimes hard on them out of concern for their own safety. My safety is connected to theirs. They could be kidnapped by the armed groups that we’ve been fighting for years and could question them about my personal life and that of my family. That’s why I treat them like that."

“I haven’t left this house since the moment I arrived eight months ago, because all of the workers could be killed by armed men,” Hasan said. “[My boss] and his men are all al-Qaeda targets, which is probably one of the reasons he hires foreign workers.”

The influx of foreign workers has not sat well with some unemployed Iraqis.

Ahmad Taha, a Falluja resident, says he and seven other Iraqis were laid off from their hotel jobs and replaced by Bangladeshi workers.

“I’m out of work because of them,” he said. “I swear if I see any one of them I’m going to beat him severely, and I won’t mind going to jail.”

Anhar Ali says she was fired from her 700-dollar-per-month nanny job.

“The family that hired me brought a Bangladeshi baby-sitter, saying she doesn’t mind being with the babies for longer hours, and she is teaching them English,” she said. “But the truth is that families are hiring Bangladeshi workers for two reasons: first, the low wages, and second, they want to appear wealthy to other tribes in the province."

The foreign workers say that, even behind closed gates, they are aware of that some Anbar residents resent them. Many say they do not want to be in Iraq but have few other options.

Khaleda, the servant from Ramadi, says she earned one dollar a day collecting aluminium cans and selling them as scraps at home. She now works for 350 dollars per month, but is not allowed to leave the house without an armed guard and sleeps on the kitchen floor.

Her boss’s wife watches her like a hawk, checking on her in the middle of the night because she worries that her husband will not be faithful, she says.

Khaleda speaks and writes English and dreamed of being a nurse but could not pay for her education. Her fiancé works in Kuwait, and they hope to marry.

“I think that two years will be enough for me to get enough money to marry and have a baby,” she said. “Maybe we can save him from the suffering that we have known.”

Source: Anbar: Bangladeshi Workers in Double Trouble By Uthman al-Mukhtar in Ramadi (ICR No. 308, 7-Oct-09). Uthman al-Mukhtar is an IWPR trainee in Fallujah.  The names of the servants have been changed to protect their identities.