Hard times

Many Iraqis have fled their country to try and put their suffering behind them. But some of those who have taken refuge in Egypt told Mustafa El-Menshawy a bitter story

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Salwa Azab, with two of her four children, recounting her memories after fleeing from Iraq

"I was living a hell in Iraq. There were explosions everywhere, crime and chaos were rampant, and my family felt there was no safety at all under the yoke of occupation."

Salwa Azab is an Iraqi refugee who fled the war-scarred country for Cairo eight months ago. Azab has only harsh memories of war-ravaged Iraq. Her house in Al-Doura, eastern Baghdad, was demolished by occupation forces. "My four children were quivering in fear when the American troops stormed the house," she recounts, visibly distraught. "Then it caught light and burned, after it was hit by heavy artillery."

The attack left the house severely damaged, with all the furniture and property inside eaten away by the scorching fire. Azab suffered deep burns which led to the paralysis of one of her hands, and her 10-year-old son was severely injured in the head when American soldiers started shooting indiscriminately as they left the area.

That was the moment when the whole family decided they had to flee their country. "My family would have starved to death unless I got out of Iraq", says Azab's husband, Hatem Shadid. The 35-year-old lost his job as a grocer in Baghdad after the capital was plunged into chaos and anarchy by the arrival of US-led forces in April 2003. "Can you imagine what it is like in Iraq? You are facing detention, robbery, looting and rape, any day, every day," he adds, and you can hear the desperation in his voice.

The case of Shadid's family is not an isolated one. UNHCR had warned that the US-led invasion would result in the exodus of at least 600,000 Iraqis from their country, and that the final number displaced could be as much as two million. The US State Department said in a January 2004 report that there are now 850,000 Iraqi refugees worldwide, and several hundred thousands more living in refugee-like conditions, mostly in Iran, Jordan and Syria.

Egypt was the Azab family's destination of choice. After all, ties between Egyptians and Iraqis can be described as both historic and cordial. Millions of Egyptians have worked in Iraq, and there is a high rate of inter-marriage. Iraqi refugees also mention the relatively easy regulations governing entry to Egypt.

But most of those who fled Iraq left with only meagre savings and a few contact numbers of other Iraqis or Egyptian friends. An Egyptian acquaintance of Shadid agreed to host his family for a few days. Shadid and his family later moved into their own rented accommodation in the poor suburb of Moneib. But they soon found themselves three months in arrears with the rent, and are now facing expulsion.

In addition, finding a job is no easy matter. "I have been looking for a job since I came here in August, and I'm still looking," says Saad Mohamed, another Iraqi refugee.

This is the eternal dilemma of the displaced person. According to a survey by the UNHCR office in Cairo released in September 2003, around 56 per cent of all Iraqi and other refugees interviewed stated that the main problem they encounter when they look for a job is the practical impossibility of obtaining a work permit, a basic requirement in the labour market, which would allow them to work legally in Egypt. "The tenuous legal situation of refugees in Egypt is worsened by the fact that Egypt remains a developing country suffering from a weak economy and high unemployment rates," the authors of the survey conclude. "That makes it harder for a refugee to find a job."

The children of Iraqi refugees also face a similar problem. Since they are classified as foreigners under Egyptian law, they are not permitted to attend the country's public schools, which their parents might be able to afford, but can only attend much more expensive private schools.

"Now, that makes two consecutive academic years I have not attended classes: the first in Iraq, and the second in Egypt," says Hatem Mohamed's daughter Rusul. Her voice choking with emotion, the 13-year-old girl recalls how her mother forced her to drop out of school while they were still living in Baghdad, for fear she might be raped as some of her classmates had been. She finally bursts into tears as she remembers: "My school in Baghdad was turned into a barracks used by the American soldiers, so many of the students and teachers were too frightened to go to school any more."

It was to try and deal with all these obstacles and problems that the Egyptian Society for Iraqi Children was created in May this year. The society is dedicated to caring for Iraqi families who have fled their homeland in the wake of the war. "What's happening in Iraq is nothing less than tragic," says Mohamed Hamdi, the society's director. "The many massacres, the aerial bombardments and all the conditions that have led to the exodus of so many Iraqis prompted us to establish a society to try and alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people in Egypt."

An Egyptian businessman who lived in Iraq for four years in the 1980s, Hamdi describes how it pains him when he encounters Iraqi refugees begging on the streets of Cairo. His society helps Iraqis find accommodation and work in the informal sector.

Hamdi claims that the UNHCR office in Cairo has rejected his appeal for help for the Iraqi refugees. "Although the UNHCR officials came to our office and monitored our activities, they only gave us empty promises that they would reach out to these families who are living in destitution. Empty promises, that's all."

A UNHCR spokesperson told Al-Ahram Weekly that UNHCR officers met Hamdi on at least two occasions, but stopped short of denying his claims of non-cooperation. "The responsibility for refugees in Egypt rests with the government. UNHCR's role is to support and advise the government in its discharge of this responsibility," the spokesperson added, putting at 52 the number of Iraqi refugees currently registered with UNHCR in Egypt.

But Hamdi dismissed the number as "deceptively small", claiming that thousands of Iraqis have fled to Egypt since the invasion.

Azab received word by Internet messenger a few days ago that a three-year-old niece had been shot dead, and another gravely maimed by US forces. She saves all the instant messages sent by her family in Baghdad. They act as a grim reminder to the refugees that their families and friends back home are still suffering. "Skirmishes with Americans on" and "We Escape in Droves to Avoid Ferocious Fighting" read two of them. Internet messaging is the only cheap way for the Iraqis here in Cairo to keep in touch with their relatives back home.

Violence may continue to engulf their homeland, but most of the Iraqi refugees interviewed by the Weekly share a desire to return as soon as security is restored to the war-scarred country. In the meantime, some Iraqi refugees in Egypt regret the poor media coverage of their suffering as displaced persons, and the lack of public awareness of their dilemma.

When Elwan's 24-year-old sister Dina asks, "why don't they care about us?" all her relatives around her can do is nod their heads in agreement.