Out of Iraq

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DATE : Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:00:00 +0500
Entered in Database : 2006-11-29 14:00:00
length : 21944614
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[These Iraqis] don't have the rights and privileges normally associated with refugees. They're stateless. They can't work. They're desperate. Each family has horrible stories of car bombs, of death threats, of violence and rapes. They have no protection and no future.

Nir Rosen, in a conversation with Open Source, 11/28/06

Nir Rosen

Fellow, The New America FoundationAuthor, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in IraqAuthor, Anatomy of a Civil War, Boston Review, Nov/Dec 2006Open Source guest, Juan Cole: Iraq in 2006 and Nir Rosen on Iraq

Faiza Al-Araji

Iraqi refugee living in Amman, JordanBlogger, A Family in Baghdad

Sean Garcia

Refugee Advocate, Refugees International

Extra Credit Reading

Michael Luo, Iraq’s Christians Flee as Extremist Threat Worsens, Middle East Transparent, October 16, 2006: "At the Church of the Virgin Mary, Father Khossaba showed a visitor the baptism forms for parishioners leaving the country who need proof of their religious affiliation for visas. Some weeks he has filled out 50 of the forms, he said, and some weeks more."Faiza Al-Arji, Return to Baghdad A Family in Baghdad, November 14th, 2006: "I know exactly the danger of the situation there, but my longing for Baghdad destroyed me. And I took the risk, I told some people: if I die there, bury me, for it would be the peak of my happiness to be buried in my homeland, Instead of the torment of expatriation away from my beloved country. What is the meaning of life without a country?"Salah Nasrawi, More Iraqi Refugees Escape to Syria, The Washington Post, November 29, 2006: "In Damascus, many Iraqis live a precarious existence, often without steady incomes. Many say they left Iraq after being threatened with abduction by criminal gangs or sectarian militias. 'We are living like homeless people. How long can we survive after we spent all the money we had?' asked Lutfi Kairallah, a civil engineer."Tom A. Peter, Iraqi refugees spill into Jordan, driving up prices, Christian Science Monitor, November 29, 2006: "'Everything in Jordan is expensive because of the Iraqis,' says Mohamed Arafha, a Jordanian barber. 'Groceries, apartments, haircuts, everything.'"Kenneth Pollack, Daniel Byman, Carriers of Conflict, The Atlantic Monthly, November 2006: "Refugees...can...corrode state power from the inside, fomenting radicalization of domestic populations and encouraging rebellion against host governments. The burden of caring for hundreds of thousands of refugees is heavy, straining government administrative capacity and possibly eroding public support for regimes shown to be weak, unresponsive, or callous. And the sudden presence of armed fighters with revolutionary aspirations can lead disaffected local clans or co-religionists to ally with the refugees against their own governments, especially when an influx of one ethnic or religious group upsets a delicate demographic balance, as would likely be case in some of Iraq's neighbors."Hugh Macleod, Despair of Baghdad turns into a life of shame in Damascus, The Guardian, October 24, 2006: "Mona had become another victim of the growing sex trade among an Iraqi refugee community in Syria that local NGOs now estimate at 800,000 people, and to whose plight aid agencies say the international community continues to turn a blind eye."Khalaf, Iraqi refugees in Jordan, What's up in Jordan?, November 28, 2006: "Not only is Human Rights Watch (HRW) asking to provide free services to the refugees already here, but it is also asking to let anybody who wants to enter to do so. Presumably, it we do this, the flood gates of funds from international donors will open and the financial burden created by this will be taken off our shoulders. HRW must think we are stupid."

2:00

After the occupation a local gang came and put a gun in my face and robbed my car…I went to the Iraqi police to ask them to help me to get my car back. They said “we can’t help you.” I went to the occupation checkpoint, the american checkpoint, and I asked them to get my car back, and they said, “It’s not my business.” In that moment, I was asking God, “I am an Iraqi, I am an innocent civilian, I am not working with the parties, I have no security man protecting me, I am not working with the militia… Who’ll protect me?”… Nobody can protect you if you are just a civillian. That night I decided to leave Iraq.

Faiza Al-Araji

5:30

[Most of the other Iraqis] that I meet, they are either poor, or they are from the middle class, like me. They have the same feeling, the same sadness in their hearts. They have the same feeling of dissapointment. They want to go back home, but they can’t because of the security conditions. Nobody left Iraq until they have a direct threat from the militia or the gangs. Either their kids have been kidnapped, or their kids have been killed, or their husband has been imprisoned…and this experience forced them to leave Iraq.

Faiza Al-Araji

9:30

Part of the big picture is that Faiza will never get to see her home… I mean in terms of living there. I can’t imagine that she’ll ever be able to go back, just like the at least 2 million refugees whose number is only growing. I think you’ll have another crisis like you have with the Palestinians. This stateless group, unaccepted by the countries that they’re in, unable to return to their homes. Part of the larger threat of this, apart from the human tragedy is the fact that it’s going to destabalize the entire region. Jordan has already closed its border, but people are still coming in. {There} you have a million people. There’s a million in Syria, and they’re still pouring into Syria. A good parallel would be Congo, Rwanda and the Great Lakes District conflict from the 1990s, where eventually the refugees also become a nexus for violence, and you have roaming militias like with the Hutus.

Nir Rosen

12:25

In Iraq you’re targeted no matter what. For any number of reasons. If you’re Shia, if you’re Sunni, if you’re Christian. If you’re educated. If you worked for the previous regime. If you work for this regime. If you belong to any militia. If you’re an artist. If you’re different in any way.

Nir Rosen

16:55

The fact that they’re not recognized as refugees means that they have no guarantees. They have no way to educate their children, to get medical care, to work. In a sense they’re worse than the palestinian refugees, because they have no rights.

Nir Rosen

22:20

(On the Iraqis he’s been talking to ) They’re just shocked. They have no idea how they’re going to survive. They might have sold a car. They might have collected all the savings they could, and they’re running out, and they can’t work and they can’t send their kids to school… what’s really tragic about this- perhaps in comparison to other refugee crisis- is that this was a thoroughly industrialized society. So these people are taken from a very high standard of living (one that would be familiar to us) and reduced to absolutely nothing.

Nir Rosen

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