Life of a Refugee:

Here is the second entry by an Iraqi refugee living in Jordan:

Iraqis in Jordan face all kinds of difficulties, from aggressive attitudes of Jordanians to unemployment, to an unstable and illegal existence.

The uncertain future for most Iraqis could be seen in their eyes. The impact of it is so severe that they are ready to consider going back to danger with no regret rather than staying and suffering from all the difficulties in Jordan. For me, Iraqi refugees in Jordan need serious attention and assistance programs that could at least provide them with the minimum support and care they need. Here is why Iraqi refugees need the support of the international community.

In my personal experience, difficulties started from entering Jordan until one arrives to the decision of going back and facing death instead of staying and struggling without even knowing the reason why? At some point, the harsh conditions force you to self-pose a series of questions: why do Iraqis get this kind of treatment? Do they deserve it? Why? For Jordanians, Iraqis are traitors who deal with the Americans and they are followers of Iran. Still, why?

One can only see all those accusations popping up in the head of any Jordanian once they recognize the Iraqi accent. It made me feel guilty, it made me want to defend myself and forget all about me being the real victim of all that happened. During my stay in Jordan, I met a lot of Iraqis, acquaintances, friends in addition to lots of relatives. We all shared the feeling of isolation, abandonment and of hopelessness. Doors are never open to us.

For example, it is not easy to get medical treatment when one is sick. Iraqis have limited or no access to even the most basic health care. The cost of health care is beyond the reach of most refugees. There were only two clinics providing free or subsidized health care to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees. The barriers to affordable health care have dire implications for Iraqis. They are not getting the treatment they need for chronic diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer. Women and girls are not receiving critical reproductive health attention. The longer this endures, the greater the number of lives at risk.

Schools are overcrowded and it is not easy to deal with the system. But the main problem remains to be finding employment.

Living in Jordan is not easy, you must have a fairly high income to keep a decent standard of living. At this point, one comes to think about finding a job that will provide. Even if you found a job, salaries in Amman or other cities are not enough to cover all expenses but it’s better than nothing.

Still, if you are an Iraqi looking for a job, you might as well dream of going to the moon instead. A hopeless quest, you will end up spending all that you have on transportation to go to interviews ,that is, if you had even heard from the places which you applied to. Jordanians will prefer to hire a fellow citizen than going through lots of problems with the government because of employing Iraqis. Besides, the Jordanian government has restrictions over hiring non-citizens. In order to get employment, you have to be a legal resident and issued a special work permit. If you don’t have a legal residency status; you will not be issued a work permit and as a result you will not find a job. Simply, the suffering goes on.

While those of us who fled from Iraq might be safer than those who didn't, we still face many hardships.

The Undesired Road to Becoming a Refugee

What drove me, and thousands of other Iraqis to leave our country, our homes and our lives was the growing fear of being kidnapped or killed by various armed groups. Suicide bombings and militia rampages had become routine, and the reliance by U.S. forces on air power too often resulted in a stray rocket killing innocent civilians. For you, my dear reader, and the international community at large, this “hectic and unstable security situation” is well known.

Overlooked in every newspaper headline and television newscast is the day-to-day reality for ordinary Iraqi families. How does one survive in an environment of daily conflict? How does one keep their children safe? What happens when the “security situation” in Iraq’s most cosmopolitan city, Baghdad, becomes too hectic and unstable? Imagine having to make the decision to leave everything behind, everything, without turning back and flying to nearest available country?

My family and I left Iraq with a certain amount of regret but with a lot of hope. Jordan was our destination because we had a lot of relatives and acquaintance who had left before us.

To my surprise, Jordan wasn’t as good as I hoped or expected it would. Problems began at the entry borders with questions of Why? With whom? For how long? We were asked as if we were coming for a vacation under normal circumstances. It was a shock to me as an Iraqi going to a close Arab country. Under the glare of the Jordanian authorities, I remember thinking ‘if anyone in the world should be aware and care about what’s happening in Iraq, it should be our Jordanian brothers and sisters.’ But to my surprise, they showed no compassion for our circumstances, only hypocrisy.

The Jordanian authorities demanded legal reasons for our entrance and stay in Jordan. Fleeing mortal dangers apparently was not a good enough reason. In the end, all we could get them to approve was one week. After that we would have to submit to the law of daily charged payments. The daily charge of illegal stay in Jordan is 1.5 Jordanian dinars which is the equivalent of more than $2 dollars. It is charged for all departing foreign visitors who have overstayed their visas, if not paid, a stamp on the passport will prevent the concerned visitor from entering Jordan in the future.

This wasn’t all, in order to get legitimate status as refugees, a status that is still hard for me to accept, we had to acquire documentation by the UNHCR. Without protected legal status as refugees, my family and I were at risk of deportation and further displacement.

We had to wait in a long line for nearly 4 hours, some people waited longer, to schedule a date for an interview with a UNHCR officer. The purpose of the interview is to determine whether or not we are truly refugees. The earliest available date was a month later.

On the day of the interview, there were 50 or more people, women and children standing in a line outside the UNHCR office in Amman, Jordan. Since it was still January, it was very windy and cold. Two hours later, they finally opened their doors and allowed us to enter the building. For another 5 hours, we waited in the crowded entranceway without any heat of any kind. The only pieces of furniture were the chairs that we sat on during our long hours of waiting.

When our turn came, as all the other families, a UNHCR staffer called our number and directed us to the room where our interview was to take place. A Jordanian lady was seated behind a computer. She asked us a few questions about how, when and why we left our home in Iraq. Then she instructed us to return to the waiting area until they call our number again.

Another 2-3 hours of waiting. Finally our turn was up again. They took individual photos of me and each member of my family. One hour later, we had the documents that we prayed would protect us.

All this trouble for a piece of paper that changes nothing about our status or our circumstances, or the status and circumstances of hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis who are obligated to undergo the same exhausting process.

In my next entry, I’ll write about what’s its like for Iraqi families living in Jordan.

The writer is an Iraqi refugee living in Jordan.

Photo caption: Thousands of Iraqi refugees gather outside the offices of a UN refugee agency in Damascus, Syria's capital, in February to register their names for obtaining refugee status.
(Bassem Tellawi/Associated Press)

Headlines 5/9/08

A collection of articles that shed light on the multiple dimensions of the Iraqi Displacement Crisis:

Iraqi legislators ask Iraqi Government to support refugees
EPIC is encouraged to see the Iraqi Government beginning to realize its obligation to help its own citizens. It is certainly a small step in the right direction and we hope to witness an increasing role by the Government of Iraq. We will monitor the story and will keep you updated on the developments.

Jordan pledges to UN continued help to Iraqi refugees
While this is important and encouraging, we strongly urge the Jordanian government to continue its efforts and we urge the United Nation to take a more proactive role.

More funding needed to help Iraqi refugees, UN says
EPIC has constantly and strongly called for more international support and it is our hope that the international community will do its part to alleviate a tragic situation.

Finally, two stories describing the beginning of a journey from uncertainty to ambition and hope. Iraqis in Idaho and Iraqis in Virginia.

All these articles strongly demonstrate that more work still needs to be done and more resources should be allocated to help Iraqis starting new lives in the United States. They also show the complexity of a crisis that undoubtedly requires our collective effort to be altered.

Photo Caption: Alaa A. Amir, right, translates some paperwork for the Saeed family — left to right: Robert, Thaer, Vivian, Stewart, and Steve. The Amir and Saeed families live in the same apartment complex in Boise. By Troy Maben for USA TODAY.

Solid Figures on Jordan

Earlier this year, Jordan commissioned the Fafo Institute to help determine the population of Iraqi refugees in the Hashemite kingdom. Rumors hit Washington this summer that the numbers they were coming up with were far lower than those Jordan had long quoted. Now the report is finally out and the numbers are indeed lower, but not drastically so.

Fafo and the Jordan Ministry of Statistics say there were "between 450,000-500,000 Iraqi residents in Jordan as of May 2007", whereas Jordan had previously maintained that there were about 750,000 Iraqis.

Whether the number is 450,000 or 750,000, it's staggering. With Jordan's estimated population of just under 6 million, it means that either 1 in 9 people in Jordan is a refugee from Iraq or 1 in 14. Either way, it represents a huge burden on Jordan's infrastructure and economy. Imagine comparable numbers here in the U.S. of between 23 to 38 million refugees!

In short, Jordan needs the help of the international community to meet the needs of so many refugees. Food and water security, job opportunities, and access to health care are severely lacking and must be addressed now. Women, children and the elderly are particularly at risk because in many cases their fathers and brothers were killed in Iraq, forcing their families to flee in the first place. Women and young girls are often forced into survival sex and prostitution to support their families. See a new report from the Women's Commission on the state of health care for Iraqi women in Jordan here.

The Iraq Crisis in Numbers: An Update

Recently, the Baltimore Sun ran an article on the refugee crisis. I was happy to see a local newspaper tackling the issue; I take it (with a heavy dose of optimism) as an indication that more and more people are paying attention to the crisis.

The article focused on one of the six Iraqis resettled in Maryland in fiscal year 2007, a woman named Ban Saadi Abdallattif, who came to the States with her nine-year-old son Sajad Mokhalad Bashar. Ms. Abdallattif was a teacher when she lived in Diyala. But the February, 2006 Samarra bombing of Al-Shi'a Al-Askari mosque marked a dramatic spike in violence that took the lives of her uncle and cousin, and which nearly led to her brother's kidnapping. Theirs is a mixed Shi'a and Sunni family, making them targets for both sides of the conflict. She fled to Syria with her entire family just over a year ago and arrived in Laurel, Maryland, this September.

Ban Saadi Abdallattif is awaiting a Social Security number so that she can begin work. Her son is in school in Laurel. She is relieved to be in the safety of the U.S. and does not plan to return to Iraq.

Sadly, Ban Saadi Abdallattif and her son represent only a fraction of the displacement crisis, and a remarkably lucky fraction at that. This fact is starkly indicated by the following stats, which clearly demonstrate the concerted effort that is required to address the crisis:

Internally Displaced Persons in Iraq: 2.3 million (UN High Commissioner for Refugees)

Refugees outside of Iraq: 2.4 million (UNHCR)

Total number displaced: 4.7 million (UNHCR)

UNHCR referrals to the United States as of Oct 5: 11,911 (Baltimore Sun)

Total number of Iraqi refugees admitted in the 2007 fiscal year: 1,608 (Human Rights First)

Of these, number referred by the UNHCR in FY07: 1,510 (HRF)

Number referred by a U.S. embassy program for Iraqi employees in FY07: 98 (HRF)

Special immigrant visas issued to translators and their family members in FY07: 820 (HRF)

Iraqi governorates with restrictions on internal movement: at least 11 of 18 (UNHCR)

UNHCR Syria: 1.4 million Iraqi refugees; 128,000 registered, nearly 36 percent with specific needs (UNHCR)

UNHCR Jordan: 1 million Iraqi refugees; 48,833 registered, 14.4 percent with specific needs (UNHCR)

Radicalization Spillover

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates 50,000 refugees flee from Iraq to Jordan each month. But some cross the border in the other direction as well.

The Jordanian city of Zarqa, for example, has become a breeding ground for Sunni Islamic militants seeking Jihad in Iraq. A May 4th article in the New York Times, "In Jihadist Haven, a Goal: To Kill and Die in Iraq," describes six men, all under 25 years old, who represent a growing shift towards radicalism in Zarqa.

Their teenage years might be considered typical even in the United States; they enjoyed pop music and sports, and considered careers in physics and professional soccer. But these activities were interrupted and dreams decimated soon after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A young woman from Narqa sums up the change: "Religion was something we just got from our parents. But after the war started, we decided we have to show the world we are Muslims."

Abu Ibrahim (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) and his five friends, each driven by his own circumstances and radicalized by one another, hired a smuggler to get them across the border from Syria. But while the other young men killed themselves in suicide bombings and shootings, Ibrahim was detained in a Syrian prison and eventually sent back to Jordan where he continues to dream of "fulfilling the rules of God": "It is our duty. If we don't defend our religion who should do it?"

Perhaps even more disturbing than the increasing numbers of young Sunni men seeking Jihad in the wake of the Iraq war is their intensifying anger towards Shiite Muslims. Ibrahim listed his targets as "first, the Shiites. Second, the Americans. Third, anywhere in the world where Islam is threatened." With videos of Shiite militias torturing and killing Sunnis circulating on the internet, more and more Sunni radicals echo Ibrahim's priorities.

The rift between the religious sects is deepening not only in the Middle East, but is also spilling over into the rest of the world. In my home state of Michigan, for example, vandals targeted Shiite-owned businesses and mosques earlier this year, and the Muslim Student Association at my own University of Michigan adopted rules preventing Shiites from leading prayers.

But even as this violence and discrimination pales in comparison to recent events in Iraq and just beyond its borders, perhaps Michigan's experience provides a small ray of hope. Today, May 10th, Muslim leaders from across Michigan will come together in Dearborn to sign a Unity Agreement. Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights wrote this in Tuesday's Detroit News:

Let us behave like the prophet with compassion, courtesy, sincerity, humbleness, patience, dignity, fairness and understanding, recalling that our prophet created the bond of brotherhood among citizens and immigrants in Medina. Despite their differences, he took serious steps against prejudice based on nationality, race and culture.

Differences in opinion are not only allowed in Islam, but critical thinking is vital in dealing with new developments. When thinkers disagree with piety and sincerity, and if the goal is solving problems, variation in thinking leads every side of a debate closer to the truth.

Peacebuilding measures, grassroots movements and economic aid towards Iraqi reconstruction should likewise focus on the common ground between Iraq's ethnic and religious groups. Reconciliation may be, as Erik points out, extremely difficult - but at least the Sunni/Shiite honor code in Michigan provides some evidence that it is not impossible.

Iraqi Refugees in Jordan: The View from the Ground

Last Thursday, as I lunched in the stately dinning room of one of Northwest D.C.'s Victorian brownstones, I listened to a fascinating discussion of the refugee situation in Jordan. Sitting at the head of the table was Noah Merrill of Electronic Iraq, who just returned from Jordan, where he spent hundred of hours interviewing Iraqi refugees.

Although there are approximately one million Iraqi refugees in Jordan, the interviewees were not easy to locate, Noah told us. Despite the UNHCR estimated 50,000 refugees fleeing to Jordan every month, there are no refugee camps; newly arrived refugees disappear into the densely-populated urban landscape of Jordan's biggest cities.

The untraceable existence of these refugees has several worrisome causes. First among these is Jordan's ability to shirk the responsibility, mandated by international law, to recognize and protect refugees within its borders. Jordan never signed on to the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees for fear that in doing so, it would be committing itself to granting residency to the large numbers of Palestinian refugees within its borders. With 60 to 70 percent of the Jordanian population made up of these Palestinian refugees, Jordanians, who are the minority in their own country, view the influx of Iraqi refugees as a genuine existential threat to their country's national identity.

Refugees, therefore, are not seen by the Jordanian government as, well, refugees. To paraphrase as senior Jordanian official: "Jordan does not have a refugee problem; Jordan has an illegal immigration problem." Thus viewed as illegal immigrants, Iraqi refugees are prohibited from working. Forced by financial circumstances to defy this prohibition, Iraqis try their best to stay under the radar. If caught, they face deportation back across the border, into the lawless terrorist haven of Al-Anbar province.

Other factors also make the climate inhospitable to Iraqi refugees. For example, the UN Refugee Agency, under pressure from the Jordanian government, has stopped issuing refugee certificates to Iraqis, and instead grants them refugees cards with the largely hollow "temporary asylum seeker" status.

Also, Noah continued, the Jordanian government, echoing a similar threat it made last year, has stated that it will expel all Iraqi children from schools - public and private. Amelia Templeton, an Iraqi refugee advocate and former NPR correspondent, said that when she interviewed Jordan's Minister of Education, he cited the cost and pressure on classroom size caused by the refugee influx as the rationale behind such measures. Yet Jordanian officials have begun to shut down schools operating out of churches - independent, informal schools which have no presumable impact on public classrooms. Noah pointed out the devastating effects such measures are having on the Iraqis, a people whose culture deeply prizes education.

In order for Iraqi refugees to ensure that they will not be deported back to Iraq, they have two options: leave Jordan and flee to a more hospitable country like Egypt, or try to gain residency status. This second option is only available to Iraqis that have the ability to put a certain amount of money into Jordanian banks. Essentially, says Noah, the Jordanian government is following international conventions to protect one type of refugee: the wealthy refugee.

A final factor threatening many Iraqi refugees in Jordan is a virulent and "intentionally constructed" anti-Shia sentiment, says Noah. State-led propaganda campaigns spread the belief that the Iraqi Shia community is responsible for bringing Americans into Iraq and for the "assassination" of Saddam Hussein. As a result of these sentiments, Iraqi Shia refugees that try to form self-help communities are deported back to Iraq.

Noah Merill ended the discussion by saying that the refugee crisis represents a political problem. As such, humanitarian aid is necessary - but not sufficient - when it comes to dealing effectively with this problem. He says that a plan that helps get Iraqi refugees back into Iraq should be fundamental to any proposed solution. This is, he said, what the refugees he interviewed truly desired - to go home.

With American NGO participants just coming back into town from last week's UN-led conference to address the Iraqi displacement crisis, I am trying to track down any information about whether such a plan is in the works. But with the fragile security environment in Iraq constantly undermined by ongoing violence, I have to wonder what the prospects for such a plan really are at this point.

For more information on Iraq's refugee emergency, be sure to check out EPIC's interview with refugee advocate Sean Garcia of Refugees International.

Invite an Iraqi Refugee Family into Your Home

Our friend JennyJo, a filmaker and producer at Democracy Now!, has a family she would like to introduce you to.

She met the Al-Khamisi family earlier this year. They are Iraqi Sabeans who follow the teachings of John the Baptist. They once lived in the "city of peace", the proprietors of a Baghdad jewelry shop. Now they reside in the shadows of Amman, Jordan. Once you know their story, learn about their terrible loss, and allow their words to reach your heart, you will not be able to forget them.



According to some estimates, there are more than 700,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan -- roughly 20% of the population. For the United States, that would be the equivalent of 60 million Iraqi war refugees!

But I'm not asking you to open your doors to so many: just one. One family. One story. Invite the Al-Khamisi family into your home. Invite them into your workplace. Share their story with loved ones and colleagues, and help awaken America and the world to the urgent needs of Iraq's war refugees.