Money gone, Iraqi refugees forced to go home

updated 7:45 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2007

DAMASCUS, Syria - Their money gone, Iman Faleh and her family packed their belongings to reluctantly return to Baghdad — a journey they said was like going to “death row.”

The religiously mixed family — Iman is a Sunni Muslim, the others are Shiite Muslims — fled their home in a mostly Shiite part of east Baghdad in July and took refuge in Syria, joining an estimated 1.5 million other Iraqis here.

But in early fall, they became part of a growing wave of Iraqis leaving Syria for home, not because they are confident of Iraq’s future, but because they ran out of money.

Others are returning because the Syrians have made it more difficult to stay. Most Iraqis cannot work legally in Syria and survive on savings or handouts from relatives.

“Going back to Baghdad means going to ‘death row,”’ said Iman’s 27-year-old son, Zaid, as he hauled luggage from the family’s $1,200-a-month apartment in Damascus. “But we have no money left that could allow us to go on living here.”

From their old home in Baghdad, Zaid said Friday that the family was trying to cope. “When we first got here we could not sleep for the first couple of nights because of the blasts and all-night-long shooting, but now it had become a routine,” he said.

Zaid said they mostly stay inside “because its not safe to go out.” And they are trying to collect money to return to Syria — a goal made more uncertain by new visa requirements imposed by Damascus.

Visa requirement slows flow into Syria
No figures are available on how many Iraqis are leaving safe havens in Syria, Jordan and other Arab countries to return to an uncertain future in Iraq.

At the border station at Tanaf, a Syrian immigration official estimated late last month that up to 1,500 Iraqis were returning to Iraq each day.

Just a few weeks ago, about 20,000 Iraqis were entering Syria daily, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to speak to the media.

The number entering Syria has dropped sharply in recent days, however, since the Syrian government began requiring Iraqis to obtain visas first. Most visa applications from Iraqis are denied.

Those who came to Syria before the new rules took effect must leave when their three-month permits expire, unless they have been officially recognized by the United Nations as refugees — a process that can take months.

That leaves many people with the grim choice of returning to the dangers of Iraq or lying low and hoping Syrian authorities won’t deport them.

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