For eight years, the area around the Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus was a home from home for tens of thousands of Iraqis, fleeing insecurity and sectarian conflict in their own country. In the crowded streets around the glittering shrine to one of Shiite Islam's holiest figures, Iraqis were safe from the killings that plagued their homeland after the US invasion of 2003.
Syrian government figures estimated the Iraqis residing in the country - possibly excessively - at a million in 2011. "The Syrians welcomed the Iraqi refugees with open arms. Whether at the level of the society or the government, they were like brothers," says Paul Stromberg, deputy representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Syria.
But Syria, which for decades has hosted refugees from the region's conflicts - Armenians, Palestinians and Kurds as well as Iraqis - is now at the eye of the storm itself, as a 17-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad takes an increasingly militarised turn. Former Iraqi army officer Abu Mahmoud, 60, is now back in Iraq's western city of Anbar, after years of exile in Syria. But he did not return to his homeland eagerly.
"Violence and explosions increased on the streets of Damascus," he says, making Iraqi refugees vulnerable. "The worse the chaos becomes on the streets of Syria, the more harassment the Iraqis living there are exposed to." Abu Mahmoud is one of many to return to an uncertain future in Iraq. Last Thursday alone, 3,800 Iraqis crossed back from Syria at the al-Walid border checkpoint.
The UNHCR had 88,000 Iraqi refugees registered with its mission in Syria as of June 1. Stromberg says numbers decreased by 40,000 in the course of 2011, and by a further 13,000 in the first five months of 2012. The UNHCR official agrees that things have recently become much worse. "When the disturbances started last year, there was no targeting (of Iraqis)," he said. "But over time, those bonds began to fray, especially as the economic situation deteriorated."
Iraqis have been "caught up in the crossfire" of the worsening conflict, Stromberg says. "Lately, as the conflict has taken on a more sectarian tone, people are being identified as Shiite or Sunni." Abu Mahmoud lived through this before his return. "The Iraqis in Syria are very worried, because the regime forces think we all support the opposition, while the opposition think we all support the regime and its shabiha militia. A lot of Iraqis have been killed because of this."
On July 17, Iraq announced that it had received the bodies of 21 of its citizens killed in Syria over the previous six days - the first such public statement from the country's authorities. Last week, the fighting reached Sayyida Zeinab and other areas with a large Iraqi population, as clashes between the Syrian army and rebels shook a string of southern and eastern suburbs.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on refugees in Syria to return home, reassuring them that there would be "a pardon for all the Iraqis who took negative positions but who were not guilty of shedding the blood of innocent people." "Innocent and peaceful Iraqis are being robbed of their money and property and murdered by criminal gangs," al-Maliki warned.
Abu Mahmoud's overland journey home was fraught with danger. Throughout the 400 kilometres between Damascus and the Iraqi border, he says, Syrian war planes were flying over the road, tracking movements of the rebel Free Syrian Army. The Iraqi government says it plans to evacuate more than 150,000 citizens from Syria, and government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said four planes had been provided for the operation, including the prime minister's official jet.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR is extremely concerned about the Iraqis that remain, amid evidence that insecurity in Syria has left them vulnerable to attacks originating back in Iraq. "Recently, there have been many more serious protection issues," says Stromberg, citing "killings and kidnappings."
"In some of these cases we appear to be seeing spillover from Iraq, especially given the profiles of the victims." "There are perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 Iraqis who have never returned for over five years, people who said they would never return to Iraq, who sold all their property there," Stromberg adds. "These people are the most vulnerable."
Comments
Comments are closed.