Heading Home to Uncertainty
Iraqi returnees find it difficult to resume their old lives.
Heading Home to Uncertainty
Iraqi returnees find it difficult to resume their old lives.
Ali Tofiq, 29, didn’t want to leave Iraq for Syria, but he felt he had no other option. He hoped to start a new life with his family – but things did not go according to plan.
A former army officer, Tofiq lost his job when the army was dissolved in 2003 and became a taxi driver. In March last year, he sold his car and all his family furniture to scrape together the money to take his wife and four children to Syria.
However, nine months after emigrating, he was still without a job. He had run out of money and felt he had no choice but to return home to Iraq.
Since he cannot afford to rent a house of his own, Tofiq and his family live with his parents in al-Ilam in eastern Baghdad. Their only source of income is Tofiq’s meagre pension of 55 US dollars a month.
Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families have fled to escape the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country. According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, around 1.8 million Iraqis have left the country since 2003 and around 1.6 million have been internally displaced. The majority have settled in Syria and Jordan.
For many who fled abroad, the relief of escaping civil war did not last. Soon the frustration of not being able to make a living set in. Job opportunities for refugees are limited in Syria and Jordan, where a special work permit is required. These countries also frequently change visa and passport regulations with the aim of reducing the influx of refugees.
Last month, hundreds of Iraqis gathered in front of UNHCR's Damascus office to register with the refugee agency, because their visas had expired and they were afraid of being deported by the Syrian authorities.
But there are a significant number of people who, after many months of struggling to make ends meet, have given up and decided to go back to Iraq. They decided they would rather live with the threat of violence than without money far from home.
It is rare that returnees can simply pick up their old lives. Many sold their homes before leaving Iraq, and others have found their properties have been seized by militia members or insurgents while they were gone.
Dureid Hasanen, 40, spent six months looking for a job in Syria but came to grief because he lacked proper documentation. "Some of the jobs required special papers to accredit my Iraqi study certificate, and that is a complex and long process in Syria,” he said.
When he ran out of money and could not cover his living costs any longer, he had no choice but to return to Iraq.
"Most of the Iraqis I know could not find jobs in Syria," he said.
And the government at home has little or nothing to offer to those coming back. Hamdia Najaf, acting minister for immigration and displaced people in Iraq, said returnees are not the ministry's priority at the moment.
"The ministry is new and we have insufficient manpower," she said, adding that they also lack the funds to deal with the increasing number of displaced people. "We have to direct our attention, help and services to those who are internally displaced.”
However, she promised that the ministry would open offices in neighbouring countries to help Iraqi refugees.
At least for the children of the returnees there are open doors, and they are welcomed back in their schools.
"Every student has the right to study in our school,” said Hana Jawad, headmaster of al-Basra preparatory school in Baghdad. “They only need to bring documents from the school they were attending before.”
Few things have remained the same for the children of Saifadeen Mahmood from Mansoor, who returned to Iraq with his family after several months in Jordan. But at least they are back in their old school – a hint of daily routine in their otherwise uprooted lives.
Hussein al-Yassiri is an IWPR contributor in Baghdad.
This article has been produced with support from the International Republican Institute (IRI).
A former army officer, Tofiq lost his job when the army was dissolved in 2003 and became a taxi driver. In March last year, he sold his car and all his family furniture to scrape together the money to take his wife and four children to Syria.
However, nine months after emigrating, he was still without a job. He had run out of money and felt he had no choice but to return home to Iraq.
Since he cannot afford to rent a house of his own, Tofiq and his family live with his parents in al-Ilam in eastern Baghdad. Their only source of income is Tofiq’s meagre pension of 55 US dollars a month.
Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families have fled to escape the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country. According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, around 1.8 million Iraqis have left the country since 2003 and around 1.6 million have been internally displaced. The majority have settled in Syria and Jordan.
For many who fled abroad, the relief of escaping civil war did not last. Soon the frustration of not being able to make a living set in. Job opportunities for refugees are limited in Syria and Jordan, where a special work permit is required. These countries also frequently change visa and passport regulations with the aim of reducing the influx of refugees.
Last month, hundreds of Iraqis gathered in front of UNHCR's Damascus office to register with the refugee agency, because their visas had expired and they were afraid of being deported by the Syrian authorities.
But there are a significant number of people who, after many months of struggling to make ends meet, have given up and decided to go back to Iraq. They decided they would rather live with the threat of violence than without money far from home.
It is rare that returnees can simply pick up their old lives. Many sold their homes before leaving Iraq, and others have found their properties have been seized by militia members or insurgents while they were gone.
Dureid Hasanen, 40, spent six months looking for a job in Syria but came to grief because he lacked proper documentation. "Some of the jobs required special papers to accredit my Iraqi study certificate, and that is a complex and long process in Syria,” he said.
When he ran out of money and could not cover his living costs any longer, he had no choice but to return to Iraq.
"Most of the Iraqis I know could not find jobs in Syria," he said.
And the government at home has little or nothing to offer to those coming back. Hamdia Najaf, acting minister for immigration and displaced people in Iraq, said returnees are not the ministry's priority at the moment.
"The ministry is new and we have insufficient manpower," she said, adding that they also lack the funds to deal with the increasing number of displaced people. "We have to direct our attention, help and services to those who are internally displaced.”
However, she promised that the ministry would open offices in neighbouring countries to help Iraqi refugees.
At least for the children of the returnees there are open doors, and they are welcomed back in their schools.
"Every student has the right to study in our school,” said Hana Jawad, headmaster of al-Basra preparatory school in Baghdad. “They only need to bring documents from the school they were attending before.”
Few things have remained the same for the children of Saifadeen Mahmood from Mansoor, who returned to Iraq with his family after several months in Jordan. But at least they are back in their old school – a hint of daily routine in their otherwise uprooted lives.
Hussein al-Yassiri is an IWPR contributor in Baghdad.
This article has been produced with support from the International Republican Institute (IRI).
