Bahija, 65, a housekeeper, told me she cries every day and suffers from
headaches – two years after IS fighters raided her home in Tel Kayf
(outside Mosul) in front of her, while her elderly father lay in bed
upstairs. Kurdish security forces stationed near their house, by whom
the family had expected to be protected, were absent when the jihadists
arrived.
Exactly two years ago (6 and 7 August), IS invaded Qaraqosh, a town on
the Nineveh plains, which, with Mosul, formed the biggest community of
Christians in northern Iraq.
When it seized control of vast areas of northern Iraq two years ago, IS
spray-painted the homes of non-Sunnis with the Arabic letter “N” for
“nasrani”, a derogatory term for “Christian”; “M” for members of the
military or police; and “R” for “rafithi”, a derogatory term for Shia
Muslims, threatening them all with death if they did not convert or
leave.
Church leaders estimated that between 100,000 and 160,000 Christians
fled Mosul and its surrounding villages for Kurdistan in the summer of
2014. Many remain in camps there, while others have travelled to Jordan
or Lebanon to join pre-existing Christian communities.
“I wouldn’t go back to Iraq if they paid me billions. No one is left for us, only God.”
Bahija, her sister and their parents first fled to Kurdistan, where, a
month later, her father died. The women lived for seven months in a room
in a church, spent 11 months at the Ashti camp in Erbil, and, when
hygiene levels in the camp deteriorated, moved to Amman, Jordan, where
they share a sparsely furnished two-roomed house with three other
relatives.
Bahija said their 80-year-old mother, Bahar, cries at night, has become
very fearful and developed high blood pressure since the ordeal.
Bahija’s sister, Samira, lost her teacher’s pension as soon as they left
Iraq because she worked for 23 years of the 35 years required to
qualify. Bahija said: “I wouldn’t go back to Iraq if they paid me
billions. No one is left for us, only God.”
Levels of poverty, hunger and trauma are soaring among the thousands of
Iraqi refugees who have sought refuge in Amman and are receiving little
or no aid. Some women have turned to prostitution to make ends meet and
some households are missing meals.
A 2015 census recorded 130,000 Iraqis in Jordan, among whom Christians
appear to be disproportionately represented. In 2007, 12% of Iraqi
migrants in Jordan were estimated to be Christian, compared to an
estimate of 1.6% of Christians in the population in Iraq itself
(Operation World, 2010).
Waves of Iraqis have been arriving in Jordan in the wake of the US-led
invasion of 2003. However, Jordan is also sheltering 1.3 million
Syrians, who have fled the horrors of their country’s four-year civil
war. The big institutions and NGOs, such as Save the Children, Oxfam and
the World Food Programme, are focusing their aid on Syrians. UNICEF’s
educational programmes focus on Syrians, although a spokesman said that
some of their facilities are open to all vulnerable children.
Three years ago a spokesman for UNHCR said Iraqis registered with UNHCR
were “extremely impoverished” because any savings they had arrived with
had run out. A spokesman for the charity, CARE, told IRIN news: “As the
Syrian crisis grew bigger, the Iraqi case has become invisible”. Since
then, the number of Iraqi refugees and the scale of their needs has
become more acute.
Many are living in basic private accommodation, paid for by local
philanthropists or churches, whose resources are being stretched to the
limit. A few local clergy are distributing food parcels, furniture, fans
and cash-grants to families. They also help with medical care and are
supported by a small number of Christian charities, aided by local
Muslim individuals and organisations.
Some refugees have serious physical injuries from attacks by militias
and require ongoing medical treatment. Safwan Hikmat, who owned a shop
in Mosul before he fled, has had eight operations on his leg since
militias beat him with their guns and ran him over in 2011. He was left
unable to walk for two years. He said he was targeted in an attempted
“ID killing”, which singled out non-Sunnis.
“As the Syrian crisis grew bigger, the Iraqi case has become invisible.”
There are considerable mental-health needs among the refugees. Justin
Hett, a psychotherapist trainer at the Centre for Victims of Torture in
Amman, which has seen a huge rise in the need for its services in the
last ten years, said issues included post-traumatic stress disorder,
suicidal thoughts, anxiety and relationship tensions.
Fr. Emmanuel al-Bana, a Syriac Orthodox priest in Amman – who oversees
an informal aid network for hundreds of the 3,000 Iraqi refugee families
he says fled to Jordan – said Iraqi Christians’ applications for asylum
in the West were often rejected. This can add to their anxiety, if they
are set on doing that. “They are taking care of Syrians and Muslims,
but not Iraqi Christians,” he said, adding: “We have no voice.”
Another refugee from a village outside Mosul asked: “Why are they [the
Western world] letting Muslims in and not us? Europe doesn’t seem to
want us to travel legally.” He said his nephew was in Turkey, trying to
reach a relative in Germany. “He’s tempted to go illegally, but he may
be lost at sea or killed by border guards on the way,” he added.
Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has said the size of the
largely Muslim refugee influx threatened Europe’s identity and he now
prepares to hold a referendum on the issue of mandatory migrant quotas,
with voters expected to reject the forced resettlement of asylum
seekers.
Yesterday (4 Aug.) the Czech Deputy Prime Minister, Andrej Babis, said
his country will not accept refugees, after recent IS-inspired attacks
in Germany and France. “I say clearly that I don't want even a single
refugee in the Czech Republic, not even temporarily,” he said.
Last summer, these same Eastern European governments faced criticism
for saying they wanted to prioritise taking Christian refugees.
Lord Alton, the respected British campaigner who has lobbied the
British Government to describe IS’s actions against Christians and
Yazidis as “genocide”, said: “Everyone is suffering in this situation
[in Iraq], but not everyone is the victim of genocide. Rather than
getting into a sensitive debate about accelerating one group because of
their faith or denomination … we should simply give priority to those
who are subject to genocide.”
However, Fr. al-Bana said some opposition to resettling Christians came
from his church's bishops, who fear the Christian presence dwindling to
nothing in the Middle East.
Courtesy: World Watch Monitor
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