Four months after he fled the violence of Iraq for safety in Syria and nearly five years after the US-led invasion, Ibrim is mired in financial problems and dreaming of a new life in the United States.
"I can't go on like this for ever," said the former bodyguard as he and 20 other jobless Iraqi refugees gathered to talk in the southern Jaramana suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Ibrim and his compatriots are among 1.5 million Iraqi refugees taken in by Syria since the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq in March 2003, according to figures compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
More than 500,000 others have sought haven in Jordan, but the UNHCR says the cost of sheltering the refugees is straining the limited resources of Syria and Jordan which are unable to offer them jobs or financial assistance.
"Because of their difficult financial situation" many Iraqis have packed up and returned home, said Ibrim, who refused to give his family name for fear of reprisals against relatives still living in Iraq.
"The violence in Iraq has not decreased," said the 47-year-old. "Explosions, assassinations and attacks by armed groups are the daily bread" of the Iraqi people, Ibrim said, adding that he himself had been threatened in Baghdad.
"They set my house on fire eight months ago. They wanted me to give up my job," said the former bodyguard for a senior Iraqi official. He did not say who he thought had been behind the attack.
Having failed to forge a livelihood in Syria, Ibrim is now hoping that the UNHCR will help to resettle him in the United States where one of his sisters lives. Three years after waiting in vain for what he called "divine providence" in Syria, Ibrahim Hirane, 70, is also hoping for a new life where he can find a job.
"I am ready to go anywhere in the world where I can work," he said. Hamed, a retired Iraqi army officer, is 46 but looks 10 years older. "Life is hard here. I cannot find a job. I'd like to leave, to go anywhere," he said, also refusing to give his last name for security reasons. In 2006 Hamed's 11-year-old son Haidar was abducted in Baghdad. The boy's body was found a week later.
Qahtan, a 67-year-old goldsmith, was luckier. His 29-year-old son was also kidnapped in the Iraqi capital but he was able to get him home safely after paying a 60,000-dollar ransom.
"So far I am getting by, but the money will run out one day," said Qahtan. The Sayyeda Zainab neighbourhood of southern Damascus was a haven for opponents of the ousted regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before the 2003 invasion. After the war most refugees fleeing the Iraqi violence congregated there again, but now, five years later, many have decided they want to leave.
Imad is going to Sweden with his wife and his children while his parents are heading back home to Iraq. "I am not happy to be going to Sweden," he said, adding however that he still dreams of returning to his homeland once calm is restored.
In October last year Syria imposed visa requirements on Iraqis in a bid to stem the massive influx of refugees. And yet despite the lower level of bloodshed Iraqis are once again heading to Syria in greater numbers than are returning home, the UN refugee agency said in a report earlier this month.
It cited Syrian immigration officials as saying that in late January an average of 1,200 Iraqis crossed the border every day compared with around 700 who returned home.
Most of those who return say they are doing so because their Syrian visas have expired or because they have run out of money, rather than because conditions in Iraq have improved, the UNHCR report said. The UN agency has warned that refugees going back to Iraq face deplorable living conditions and a highly volatile security situation.
Donor nations have been urged to make good on pledges to help needy refugees stuck in Syria, with the UN's World Food Programme saying it had received only five of the 43 million dollars necessary for 2008.
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