Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
December 30, 2007
Pg. 1
Some skeptical that it is safe, but times are too tough elsewhere
By Gregory Katz, Houston Chronicle Middle East Bureau
CAIRO, EGYPT — Ahmed Hilmy, agitated and anxious, walked into the Iraqi Airways office in downtown Cairo to find out whether he had cleared the waiting list for a confirmed seat on the next day's flight to Baghdad.
The green-clad ticket agent tapped in Hilmy's name, punched a few more computer keys, then looked up with a smile. "You're on," she said. Hilmy's face relaxed with a broad grin. After eight months as a refugee in Egypt, he was going home.
"I'm so happy," he said. "It's not totally secure, not everything is safe, but it's better than staying here in Cairo and doing nothing."
Every week, more and more Iraqis show up at the airline office, looking for a ticket home. Similar scenes are unfolding at airline offices and bus stations in Jordan and Syria, the countries with the largest Iraqi refugee populations. So far, more than 25,000 Iraqis have returned home, Iraqi Red Crescent officials said last week, without giving a country-by-country breakdown.
"A lot of people are going back now," said Emab Abas Naser, the Iraqi Airways manager in Cairo. "The security in Iraq has improved. The situation is much more stable now."
The enthusiasm at Iraqi Airways can be infectious, but many of the estimated 150,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt are skeptical that it is safe to return.
Leaders of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agree that it is too soon for a mass movement back to Iraq because of the volatile conditions there.
The refugees in Egypt represent a second phase of the exodus from Iraq amid the warfare between U.S. troops and insurgents, street battles between Sunni and Shiite Muslim militias and waves of murders, kidnappings and death threats against those who supported the American invasion.
More than 4.4 million Iraqis have abandoned their homes, according to United Nations figures, including some 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq and another 2.2 million who fled to other countries.
On the margins of society
At first, many refugees found shelter in Jordan or Syria. Now, some have moved on to Egypt, where the cost of living is low, or Lebanon, where sectarian tensions simmer. Others have paid smugglers for passage to Western Europe and even Australia.
United Nations refugee officials say the Iraqis in Egypt can get temporary permission to stay but do not have easy access to jobs, health care or schools. They live on the margins of society.
Many reside in and around Cairo, with a large concentration in Sixth of October City, a 30-minute drive from the capital.
They do not look like typical refugees found in camps throughout the world. They are clean, well groomed and not starving. But they see their lives withering away as they sink into idleness and poverty. All face a terrible choice: Should they return home, with its hazards, or remain in Egypt, an overcrowded, poor country where the few jobs available pay about $100 a month?
Riyadh Khalid, a 36-year-old computer programmer, said he cannot return with confidence because his old Baghdad neighborhood is controlled by militias linked to al-Qaida. He holds them responsible for murdering his brother who worked for U.S. companies.
Khalid fled with his wife and two daughters after receiving death threats because he worked for the Americans, and he does not want to put his family at risk by going back. But he fears they are slowly rotting in their drab apartment just one block from the Nile River in Cairo's Maadi neighborhood.
"I think of going back because we are running out of money," he said in a soft voice as his wife and daughters watched an Iraqi show on TV. "It's so confusing. You can go back to Iraq and work and earn money and maybe be killed, or you can stay here without money and slowly die."
Khalid feels defeated. He can no longer pay for the $1-a-day prescription medicine needed to combat his daughter Danaya's asthma. And he feels abandoned by the Americans.
U.S. officials, he said, have rebuffed his pleas to help his family resettle in Europe or the United States. He has registered with the United Nations refugee agency and underwent a preliminary interview about resettlement, but the process has stalled.
"The important point is we served the American forces in Iraq and tried to improve our country and help the Americans, so why don't the Americans care about us?" he said.
"They used me and wiped their hands of me."
His only ally, it seems, is Barbara Harrell-Bond, a professor at the American University in Cairo who has become a tireless advocate for the Iraqis in Egypt.
Her apartment has become a rallying point for them. She offers everything from legal advice to heart-to-heart talks about the marital stress and alcoholism that often accompany refugee life. She even advocates hugs and massages — an uncommon approach in a conservative, largely Muslim country.
She and her small group of volunteer lawyers bombard various refugee officials with e-mails on behalf of Khalid and the other refugees, including several who suffered serious injuries while acting as translators during U.S. military operations.
Criticizing U.S. procedure
One Iraqi lost a leg and several fingers on his right hand when a bomb exploded underneath his vehicle. He received an artificial leg and extensive medical treatment in Jordan, but his attempt to win a U.S. visa has bogged down. He has not yet been contacted by a representative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has to interview every applicant to make sure that person does not pose a terror threat.
"The procedure is too slow," said Ali, who withheld his last name because he does not want to jeopardize the safety of his five children who remained in Iraq.
"I'm dying to go to the United States," he said. "That was true even before I was injured. We agreed with what the Americans did all the way. I didn't work for them just for money. America changed the dictator, they changed our whole lives, so we had to help them." He said the artificial leg was poorly fitted and is still painful to use but he cannot afford to replace it. He also cannot purchase medicines he needs.
Harrell-Bond said many of the refugees are, like Ali, quietly becoming destitute. "The situation is horrific," she said. "The U.N. agency refers them for resettlement, and then they wait and wait and wait. Every part of the process is delayed.
"Now there is this propaganda that they are going home to Iraq because they want to — happy day — when really they are going home to face death because they have no more money."
'Afraid of the future'
The other day some 20 Iraqis gathered for a meeting in the cramped living room of Harrell-Bond's downtown Cairo apartment to discuss the psychological problems they face as Egypt's unwanted.
They have given up any hopes of moving to the United States, Europe or Australia because, they said, the resettlement program is in shambles. Most were resigned to staying in Egypt. Their anger was reserved for the Americans, whom many blamed for Iraq's descent into anarchy.
"I could not go back because I have received threats from two sides," said Azher Adnan, a 36-year-old who is trying to move to Australia.
Iraqis, he said, can't understand why America — the greatest country in the world — failed to establish security inside Iraq and could not prevent the insurgents from occupying or burning their houses.
"We welcomed America, but America has disappointed us," he said.
The refugees are quiet and polite. They do not interrupt one another and they listen with respect, offering support when they can. But their calm demeanor hides deep internal frustrations, said Sanaa Mohammed, a college teacher in Iraq who has not been able to find a job in the Cairo area.
"My kids can't go to school here, and I have no money," she said. "I applied for jobs everywhere, and no one accepts me. And we can't go back because my house was burned after I got threats from al-Qaida.
"We are afraid of the future."
December 30, 2007
Pg. 1
Some skeptical that it is safe, but times are too tough elsewhere
By Gregory Katz, Houston Chronicle Middle East Bureau
CAIRO, EGYPT — Ahmed Hilmy, agitated and anxious, walked into the Iraqi Airways office in downtown Cairo to find out whether he had cleared the waiting list for a confirmed seat on the next day's flight to Baghdad.
The green-clad ticket agent tapped in Hilmy's name, punched a few more computer keys, then looked up with a smile. "You're on," she said. Hilmy's face relaxed with a broad grin. After eight months as a refugee in Egypt, he was going home.
"I'm so happy," he said. "It's not totally secure, not everything is safe, but it's better than staying here in Cairo and doing nothing."
Every week, more and more Iraqis show up at the airline office, looking for a ticket home. Similar scenes are unfolding at airline offices and bus stations in Jordan and Syria, the countries with the largest Iraqi refugee populations. So far, more than 25,000 Iraqis have returned home, Iraqi Red Crescent officials said last week, without giving a country-by-country breakdown.
"A lot of people are going back now," said Emab Abas Naser, the Iraqi Airways manager in Cairo. "The security in Iraq has improved. The situation is much more stable now."
The enthusiasm at Iraqi Airways can be infectious, but many of the estimated 150,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt are skeptical that it is safe to return.
Leaders of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agree that it is too soon for a mass movement back to Iraq because of the volatile conditions there.
The refugees in Egypt represent a second phase of the exodus from Iraq amid the warfare between U.S. troops and insurgents, street battles between Sunni and Shiite Muslim militias and waves of murders, kidnappings and death threats against those who supported the American invasion.
More than 4.4 million Iraqis have abandoned their homes, according to United Nations figures, including some 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq and another 2.2 million who fled to other countries.
On the margins of society
At first, many refugees found shelter in Jordan or Syria. Now, some have moved on to Egypt, where the cost of living is low, or Lebanon, where sectarian tensions simmer. Others have paid smugglers for passage to Western Europe and even Australia.
United Nations refugee officials say the Iraqis in Egypt can get temporary permission to stay but do not have easy access to jobs, health care or schools. They live on the margins of society.
Many reside in and around Cairo, with a large concentration in Sixth of October City, a 30-minute drive from the capital.
They do not look like typical refugees found in camps throughout the world. They are clean, well groomed and not starving. But they see their lives withering away as they sink into idleness and poverty. All face a terrible choice: Should they return home, with its hazards, or remain in Egypt, an overcrowded, poor country where the few jobs available pay about $100 a month?
Riyadh Khalid, a 36-year-old computer programmer, said he cannot return with confidence because his old Baghdad neighborhood is controlled by militias linked to al-Qaida. He holds them responsible for murdering his brother who worked for U.S. companies.
Khalid fled with his wife and two daughters after receiving death threats because he worked for the Americans, and he does not want to put his family at risk by going back. But he fears they are slowly rotting in their drab apartment just one block from the Nile River in Cairo's Maadi neighborhood.
"I think of going back because we are running out of money," he said in a soft voice as his wife and daughters watched an Iraqi show on TV. "It's so confusing. You can go back to Iraq and work and earn money and maybe be killed, or you can stay here without money and slowly die."
Khalid feels defeated. He can no longer pay for the $1-a-day prescription medicine needed to combat his daughter Danaya's asthma. And he feels abandoned by the Americans.
U.S. officials, he said, have rebuffed his pleas to help his family resettle in Europe or the United States. He has registered with the United Nations refugee agency and underwent a preliminary interview about resettlement, but the process has stalled.
"The important point is we served the American forces in Iraq and tried to improve our country and help the Americans, so why don't the Americans care about us?" he said.
"They used me and wiped their hands of me."
His only ally, it seems, is Barbara Harrell-Bond, a professor at the American University in Cairo who has become a tireless advocate for the Iraqis in Egypt.
Her apartment has become a rallying point for them. She offers everything from legal advice to heart-to-heart talks about the marital stress and alcoholism that often accompany refugee life. She even advocates hugs and massages — an uncommon approach in a conservative, largely Muslim country.
She and her small group of volunteer lawyers bombard various refugee officials with e-mails on behalf of Khalid and the other refugees, including several who suffered serious injuries while acting as translators during U.S. military operations.
Criticizing U.S. procedure
One Iraqi lost a leg and several fingers on his right hand when a bomb exploded underneath his vehicle. He received an artificial leg and extensive medical treatment in Jordan, but his attempt to win a U.S. visa has bogged down. He has not yet been contacted by a representative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has to interview every applicant to make sure that person does not pose a terror threat.
"The procedure is too slow," said Ali, who withheld his last name because he does not want to jeopardize the safety of his five children who remained in Iraq.
"I'm dying to go to the United States," he said. "That was true even before I was injured. We agreed with what the Americans did all the way. I didn't work for them just for money. America changed the dictator, they changed our whole lives, so we had to help them." He said the artificial leg was poorly fitted and is still painful to use but he cannot afford to replace it. He also cannot purchase medicines he needs.
Harrell-Bond said many of the refugees are, like Ali, quietly becoming destitute. "The situation is horrific," she said. "The U.N. agency refers them for resettlement, and then they wait and wait and wait. Every part of the process is delayed.
"Now there is this propaganda that they are going home to Iraq because they want to — happy day — when really they are going home to face death because they have no more money."
'Afraid of the future'
The other day some 20 Iraqis gathered for a meeting in the cramped living room of Harrell-Bond's downtown Cairo apartment to discuss the psychological problems they face as Egypt's unwanted.
They have given up any hopes of moving to the United States, Europe or Australia because, they said, the resettlement program is in shambles. Most were resigned to staying in Egypt. Their anger was reserved for the Americans, whom many blamed for Iraq's descent into anarchy.
"I could not go back because I have received threats from two sides," said Azher Adnan, a 36-year-old who is trying to move to Australia.
Iraqis, he said, can't understand why America — the greatest country in the world — failed to establish security inside Iraq and could not prevent the insurgents from occupying or burning their houses.
"We welcomed America, but America has disappointed us," he said.
The refugees are quiet and polite. They do not interrupt one another and they listen with respect, offering support when they can. But their calm demeanor hides deep internal frustrations, said Sanaa Mohammed, a college teacher in Iraq who has not been able to find a job in the Cairo area.
"My kids can't go to school here, and I have no money," she said. "I applied for jobs everywhere, and no one accepts me. And we can't go back because my house was burned after I got threats from al-Qaida.
"We are afraid of the future."