The hunted: Iraq’s forgotten refugees
The Sunday Times, UK Jon Swain, Baghdad
THE tragedy of Iraq is written on the anguished faces of Abu Khaled’s six children. Pallid, tear-stained and haunted by fear, they shelter on the floor of a cold and draughty Baghdad classroom with their father after fleeing at gunpoint from their home. Food is scarce — they rely on charity — and the prospects of finding work and permanent accommodation are grim. Nearly four years after the American and British invasion, the rising toll from bombs and death squads has forced the Khaled family — and hundreds of thousands of other ordinary Iraqis who used to lead peaceful and blameless lives — to be refugees in their own country.
The Khaleds are among the latest victims of vicious sectarian violence that is creating a humanitarian crisis of overwhelming proportions.
If they could, they would leave their war-ravaged homeland and join the hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis who have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. But swamped by a steady exodus of Iraqis — thousands are trying to leave every day — these countries have now imposed restrictions on new arrivals.
As each day passes, Iraqis are finding themselves more and more unwelcome in the Middle East and their chances of beginning a new life in Europe and America are even worse than before.