00:0000:09 DAMASCUS GVs COMM Two million Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, more than a million of them here in Damascus.
00:1700:26 These families are the people Iraq needs if it is ever to rebuild - teachers, doctors, engineers, shop owners. The Iraqi government is encouraging them to return, saying Iraq is safer now. But what is the reality, here and in Baghdad?
00:3700:40 These are the stories of three people: Afrah and her husband ran out of money in Syria. She has to go back to Baghdad to confront the gunmen who confiscated her flat.
00:52 Fayez and his family are moving back, but only because they're bankrupt.
00:5901:04 Ahlam was kidnapped in Iraq and believes she will not be able to go back for years. As a volunteer aid worker, she struggles to cope with the increasing desperation of the refugees.
01:12 Tape 119 After 39:19AhlamI want to say that the problem of the Iraqi refugees is a problem which nobody can ignore. It won't fade away in two or three or four months.
01:29 Hard Way Home
01:4601:54 DAMASCUS Tape 933 Khaled Hashem (Umm Ghaith's son) arrives home carrying a jerrycan of
water. Umm Ghaith opens the door to him. COMMThe biggest problem refugees in Damascus face is money. They cannot legally work, although they can invest in businesses. After two years of living on savings, Afrah's family has nothing left. Her small hairdressing salon has failed.
02:05 If Afrah could get rent from one of the family's two flats in Baghdad, they could survive in Damascus.But that means she has to go back to Iraq to confront the gunmen who confiscated it. And she has to explain the risks to her sons Ghaith and Khaled.
2:23 Tape 93 3 Umm Ghaith tells Ghaith and Khaled that she is going to Baghdad and they must look after each other. Tomorrow I might go away, if God willsIf anything happens to me, look after each otherFine?-FineHe's your big brother, so listen to himAnd you're the older one, respect himIf you respect him, he'll respect youSo, I mean...- Don't worry, Mum
02:50 Tape 931 Umm Ghaith master interview Tape 931Afrah Jassim (Umm Ghaith)00:54Our houses were taken by the Mahdi Army because my husband is Sunni and I am Shia That's the reason they gave They took them when I left for Syria and have kept them ever since I don't know I don't know how things will turn out God knows what fate has in store for us
03:19 Militia power in Iraq means no rule of law for property or business - and gunmen controlling the streets.The refugees are continually hearing bad news.
03:3004:15 Tape 933 Umm Ghaith gets a phone call from a friend who says that the teenage son of one of their neighbours in Baghdad has been shot dead on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Tell me, where did they kill him? In our area?How did they kill him near Abu Ghraib?When was he born, 1987? He was still a childGod give his mother patienceDon't forget me. Come and see meGoodbye, my loveDo you remember Dad's relativesSahar al-Samarrai who lived in our area?They've killed her sonWhat do you mean, killed him? Why did they go to Iraq? It's terrible. He was here, was it the day before yesterday?No, maybe it was about a week. He said he wanted to go to BaghdadO God our protector!
4:18 Tape 933 Umm Ghaith tells camera she is going to Baghdad; she has made her will and is entrusting her boys to us. I've written my will I told Abu Ghaith, I'm afraid, look after the boy sI'm saying the same to you. Look after my boys We can't go back to Iraq It's impossible - unless God saves us and things settle down So I just want you to look after my boys That's all I ask God is generous. We'll see what will happen
4:40 DAMASCUS GVs roofscape
4:52 Tape 932 Umm Ghaith in kitchen making tea Abu Ghaith brushing his shoes Umm Ghaith putting on makeup Afrah and her husband Hashem got married long before Iraqis cared about Sunni or Shia. In those days, nobody even kept statistics on mixed marriages. But sociologists estimate about one marriage in three was mixed - either Sunni-Shia or Arab and Kurd. Thousands upon thousands of families now face the same dilemma as Afrah and Hashem. Where can they live in a divided Iraq?
5:215:32 Tape 931 Afrah19:52What drove us out of Baghdad?We were living like kings! Thanks to God! I had a car, Abu Ghaith had a carA flat, and a second flat... We were living wellT ape 931Afrah25:49But when they brought their sectarianism and their "this is mine, that's yours "It all vanished. I was afraid I wouldn't reach my own front doorI still miss the times we had It was an area where you go out and say to a boy, 14 or 15 years old"My dear, could you help me fix this generator? "Now you say, "My dear" and he says "What do you want?"
6:06 They have taught them sectarianism, blood and deathAbu Ghaith, shall I go ahead then?If God willsSo shall I go to Baghdad on Monday? Or should I go sooner? No. If you get the papers done today, you could go tomorrowIf I delay till Monday, would that be a problem?No, no problem
6:27 Afrah and Hashem drinking tea and chatting Afrah Do you remember the wedding tea?HashemYes, this is the wedding tea!
6:34 Afrah and Hashem get on bus COMM Afrah's problem with her flat is just one small example of the sectarian cleansing that has redrawn the map of Iraq in the last three years.More than two million Iraqis are now internally displaced, driven from their homes and now squatting in tents and shanty towns across Iraq.
6:577:15 Sayyida Zeinab GVs Two million more have fled abroad, most to Syria and almost all the rest to Jordan. Every other country in the world shut its doors to them. The refugees abroad are, in some ways, the lucky ones.They started out with enough savings to leave Iraq and rent a roof over their heads .But they're paying dearly to live in a slum. Here in Sayyida Zeinab on the southern edge of Damascus, a flat with no drinking water and patchy electricity costs 200 dollars a month.
7:28 This is where Ahlam has lived since she fled here from Iraq three years ago... from a big house with a garden, to a tiny flat.
7:39 GVs Damascus Ahlam in kitchen COMM She started her aid work after the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.She campaigned for compensation for Iraqis in Kadhimiya, a sprawling area of northern Baghdad. She speaks English and could negotiate with the Americans. But that made her a target for militiamen who accused her of being a spy and kidnapped her.
8:018:15 Tape 108-109 Ahlam28:36For eight days, seven nights, I didn't know where I wasMy eyes were blindfolded They interrogated me But they didn't learn anything because I didn't know anythingAfter the eighth day, I was handed ove rI thought to begin with they had handed me to another gang
8:258:32 29:18...The car stopped. They said "You are in front of your family's house"I had been kidnapped from outside my family's house...When the sound of the care engine faded away, I opened my eyes The light after eight days was incredible When I opened the door, they all surrounded me Everyone was asking me questions The next day I had a heart attack
8:54 As Ahlam recovered in Syria from the trauma of the kidnap, she started her aid work again. She's now a volunteer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But many desperately needy cases are just not being helped by the official aid effort.
9:10 Today she is visiting a family whom she first met living in a leaky tent on a roof.
9:20 In Iraq, Abu Riyam made a good living from a windscreen repair business. But it was destroyed when American forces bombarded insurgents out of his town.
9:309:4110:02 Dad I got no compensation I was left with nothing I want to say that the problem of the Iraqi refugees Mum They gave compensation for houses but not businesses Dad We're still waiting for compensation for businesses in Falluja They only gave compensation for housing But with regard to businesses - shops, factories, apartment buildings There was no compensation for themIf you didn't have a house, you got nothing Even if all of your money was in the businesss Mum All our money is in the business
We even sold our houses and invested the mone We put it into a car windscreen business The business was bombed, and we lost everything We weren't entitled to compensation for a home and up to now there's no compensation for businessess
10:20 DAMASCUS Tape 100(Ahlam visits tent family)Ahlam speaks with crippled child COMM When the last of their savings ran out in Damascus, the tent was all they could afford. Ahlam found them this flat and collected donations for their first month's rent.
10:33 Tape 100 After 41:11AhlamThis is the first obstacle for any Iraqi family how to pay the rent We can't cope with the landlord coming and knocking on the door of the flat and saying 'I want the rent!' We can't bear the humiliation Other issues such as food or clothes are not big problems If we need to keep warm, we can just wear all our summer clothes But the rent, no. It's too humiliating Little things which people didn't think about have become problems
11:20 COMM Despite their problems in Damacus, the family say they can't go back to Iraq - no money to restart their business, water and electricity barely functioning, no medical care for their disabled daughter.
11:34 DAMASCUS Ahlam's flatAhlam helps daughter Ruqaya with homework
11:51 COMM Among all the stresses of refugee life, Ahlam makes sure her daughter Ruqaya and son Abdullah do their homework.90 per cent of Iraqi children in Syria are not going to school. Those that do find themselves 50 or more to a class, sometimes without even chairs to sit on.
12:15 Syrian children also start English in year 1, the Iraqis not till year 5. The Iraqis feel so far behind that Ahlam says they can easily get depressed and drop out.
12:34 DAMASCUS COMM So she's been running extra English classes in her living room, and is now trying to get official permission to teach many more children in the flat downstairs.Volunteers are hurrying to get the rooms ready.
12:47 Schooling is critical for the future of Iraq.Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was one of the best educated societies in the Middle East, with an adult literacy rate of more than 70 per cent. Now it's 60. (http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000512.php)
13:04 COMM Ahlam needs a licence from the Syrian security authorities to turn her informal classes into a proper school.She asked UNICEF and the UNHCR for help but got nowhere.
13:15 Tape 106 AhlamAt any time the classes could be closed down. Nobody cares.If the classes exist or not, if the go on or notIt's not their problem. They don't care
13:34 Let's get down to the essentials. Who is going to rebuild Iraq? I'm now 42 years old Those my age who have degrees have now either emigrated or they are in exile waiting for Iraq to settle down, which could take 10 or 15 years All the skills will have gone Who will we rely on to rebuild the country? We will rely on this generation So if this generation has been lost are we going to rely on foreigners to rebuild our country? No!
14:12 DAMASCUS Tape 103Ahlam collects UNHCR ration GV UNHCR tents in centre of Damascus Ahlam in UNHCR office having records checked COMMThe UNHCR's food distribution centre in the middle of Damascus. A UNHCR survey in late 2007 said more than a third of refugees expected to run out of money within three months. Most of them are living off savings, or gifts from family abroad
14:31 Since February, the UNHCR has been offering food rations to all registered refugees in Syria.
14:37 But the UNHCR has registered only a fraction of the Iraqis in Syria - 172,000 out of 1.5 million. So most don't qualify. Ahlam queues up to collect her rations.
14:52 Tape 103 Ahlam After 20:54At the beginning there was no confidence in the United Nations because they didn't provide any servicesNow there are some services. At least people can get food rations
15:0215:17 Ahlam is given brochure on UNHCR services Ahlam walking to collection tents Truck backs into tent men load bags of rice Man says "next tent" Truck moves out Men load mattresses and blankets CU Ahlam gives thumb print COMMThe rations are going to be given out every two months. They're designed to meet only some of a family's needs - rice, lentils, cooking oil, and some household basics. To the next tent!
15:28 Driving shots on wet road WS entrance to Ahlam's houseMen unload bags of rice COMMAhlam could get by without the UN rations - she's able to support herself with odd translating jobs.But she wants them to give away to people who have nothing because they're not registered.
15:43 Tape 103 46:16Q are you happy now? Ahlam I’m happy because I'm going to give some of this to peopleI have something to share out
15:53 Ahlam Let's see what's in the box so I can decide. is tea, spaghetti There's oil.
16:04 Those, and a bag of rice we will give to the family living on the roofThe mattresses and
those two blankets we'll give to the family with two orphansPoor things, they need it Now I’m happy!
16:31 DAMASCUS GVs UNHCR headquarters COMMThe UNHCR knows it has been failing to reach many of the refugees. The High Commissioner for Refugees himself, Ant—nio Guterres, meets Ahlam and 40 other Iraqi volunteer workers. The aim is for Guterres to hear what the volunteers think are the most urgent problems.Top of the list is fear of being deported back to Iraq.
Tape 102 UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ant—nio Guterres meets Iraqi volunteers. 05:27Ant—nio Guterres UN High Commissioner(English)I have already spoken to I don’t know 50 or 60 refugees during these two days ... many come and say they have not been recognised in their needs ... And you need to be our eyes.
17:19 27:28 Voluntee rMost Iraqis have skills – army officers, journalists, doctors These people are being hunted now You've all heard in the media - a teacher killed, an army officer, a journalist How can we go back to Iraq when we are threatened? We know our fate will be death
17:32 33:43 Ant—nio Guterres UN High Commissioner(English)We have a very strong guarantee that there will not be any movement to push people back...and if you remember recently there was a lot of propaganda saying things in Iraq are very good, and that return would take placeÉ the Syrian government is not having that position. So they are not pushing for a quick return.
17:52 COMM Guterres listens for an hour, but a planned presentation by Ahlam on education and her project for extra English classes is squeezed out.
01:01:32Ant—nio Guterres UN High Commissioner
18:02 01:02:49 Ahlam Just two minutes from your time, sir.Ant—nio Guterres (off camera) One minuteAhlamOne minute, it’s ok with me. I want to notice about the education situation for iraqi refugees here especially the children, in the primary school and the high school. It is so difficult situation here.
18:19 Ant—nio Guterres (wagging finger)The president was very much committed to increase the number of Iraqi children able to go to the schools and to open the system, and this will be our priority now in our relations with the government and with several partners.
18:34 AhlamThere is a small project which we can do it through the UNHCR.Ant—nio GuterresIf there is a project for that, we will be very happy.
18:43 COMM Guterres has sounded sympathetic on deportation, financial assistance and even Ahlam's education project.
18:54 Tape 103 02:07Lots of promises, one per cent implementationI don't mind for myself But the families you've seen in Sayyida Zeinab What shall I tell them? What is the reason they get nothing? That there is a long process of promises, bureaucracy, budgeting and fundraising before they come and help you?
19:2919:57 Ahlam helps whoever she can, however she can, working from her living room, in between looking after her children. She has attracted a gaggle of young helpers, all refugees themselves. Umm Anas, as they call her, has become a mother to them too. Baraq came to Syria alone three years ago from a village controlled by insurgents.
20:03 Qassim, who's 20 now, grew up in exile and can't go back. His brother was kidnapped for working on an American base.
20:11 Helen fled a town north of Baghdad after sectarian militias killed her uncle and shot her father.
20:23 They're building up a database of cases on Ahlam's laptop - in just one week, they identified 85 families with urgent needs.If ever they find donors willing to give money, they know who to help.
20:37 Qassim in kitchen Tape 11155:28QassimI was here for two years before BaraqI used to bring families to Umm Anasand take delegations like you to visit them I was doing what Helen does now After that, I started to go to the families and Helen took my place.That's the whole story
20:55 Baraq She's like our mother because my family aren't here, they're in IraqSo I come and sit with her and chatAnd we meet nice people like you
21:05 Qassim My real mother doesn’t understand meShe always makes problems for meI can’t tell her what’s inside me, just what I did yesterday, or what I'm doing tomorrowBut I can talk to Umm Anas and she gives me advice. My own mother doesn’t So this is my mother.
21:25 Ahlam is goosed by Qassim Qassim: Look there's a cockroach Ahlam: Why? Why? Baraq: I love youAhlam: You love me? No, no. Stop it.I need a telephone card and cigarettes Qassim: I've got cigarettes. Ahlam: What sort are they?- 'SP'Ahlam: They're old. Put them away before anyone sees them Qassim: They taste good! I know they're old, but they're fine Ahlam: Put them away before anyone sees them Qassim: Well, I'm smoking them! What does it taste like?
22:01 Baraq: I present to you my motherwho I have lived with for two yearswho has looked after me as well as my mother who's in IraqI feel I have two mothersQassim: She's better than my real mother Ahlam: What are you saying! That's wrong! Qassim: She knows more secrets than my own mother and she always gives me good advice Baraq : She always gives me bad advice!
22:33 DAMASCUS Tape 118EXT Red Crescent clinic. Abu Zeinab arrives pushing palsied daughter in buggy. Helen helps Abu Zeinab lift buggy up clinic steps Busy scenes in clinic COMM One of the most depressing problems for the Iraqi refugees is healthcare. Abu Zeinab's daughter has a mysterious creeping paralysis which has defeated doctors in Iraq. Ahlam and Helen help him to negotiate his way through a local Red Crescent clinic overwhelmed by the number of refugees.
23:00 COMM It's one of 7 new clinics paid for with 8 million dollars from the UNHCR, and sees 800 patients a day. But it's just not enough. The UNHCR says one in six Iraqis on its books either suffer from a chronic illness or have someone in their family suffering.
23:19 Helen asks where neurologist is Is the neurologist in the same place as the heart specialist?Where?
23:31 CU doctor in white coat, pointing finger Tape 11810:30Angry man It’s 10 o'clock now and he hasn't come. Why? Yes, I know. If the doctor doesn't come... what time is he supposed to be here?GuardSomething came up but he'll be here soon. Angry man They should have told us to go away and come back laterDoctor Everyone knows the clinic is open from 9.30am till 2pm.If you came at 8am that's not the doctor’s fault.
24:51 Angry man We're not going to humiliate ourselves It would be kinder. That would be fineIf you don't want us, tell us to go away
24:02 COMM Ahlam tries to bridge the gap between the bewildered refugees and a harassed clinic administrator.
24:10 Tape 116 (Ahlam exchange with administrator)Ahlam Excuse me The problem for the Iraqis coming to you is the lack of information Administrator That's true. So we're soon going to organize awareness seminars for all the Iraqis AhlamThere is an Arab proverb, 'People in need are blind'They cling onto anything they hear, even if it is from another patientor just someone they meet in the street
24:42 COMM Nobody would choose this refugee life - no legal jobs, hundreds of dollars in rent and living costs to cover each month, aid services confusing and inadequate. But the vast majority of Iraqis here see no possibility of returning home yet - they just don't think they will be safe.
25:04 DAMASCUS GV COMM For Ahlam, it's often a 15 or 16 hour day as a stream of desperate people call at her flat .It's a gruelling lifestyle for a woman who's had a heart attack and cancer.
Ahlam says goodbye to woman in black staggering out with bag of food. WS woman walks away down wet alley
25:26 Tape Ahlam exhausted on sofa COMM Exile brings not just practical challenges such as poverty and sickness but emotional pressures that can drive families apart. Ahlam's own problems began when her eldest son, Anas, died suddenly soon after the family fled to Syria.
25:44 Tape 108AhlamHe was quite normal when he came home. In fact he was laughing But he said, ‘Mum, my shoulder hurts’...
26:16 The last words he said to me wereI said to him, 'Who are your friends?' and he said to me, 'Mum, you're my friend'I asked him, 'Did someone hit you? 'He said no. He just shook his head So the last words I heard were that I was his friend The hospital director came and said he had to have an emergency operation because he had an internal hemorrageI asked to go into the operating theatre with him, and they refused They said he had to go down in the lift on his own When he was in the lift he was looking at me Believe me, he didn't look at his father. He didn't look at anything He was just looking at me.
26:49 When I got down the stairsthe doctor came out of the theatre and said'Your son is dead'
26:59 Gradually, I couldn’t help starting my aid work againIt was a consolation to mea consolation for the loss of a home, a familythe loss of an entire familyand the loss of my sonIt was really a consolation for me
27:35 Children doing homework in bedroom COMM Ahlam's husband, though, couldn't go on. He'd been robbed of almost all their savings when they first came to Syria and couldn't find a job. He was ashamed to be relying on Ahlam's earnings from her translating jobs. A few weeks ago, after 13 years of marriage and without a word, he walked out.
28:01 DAMASCUS Sayyida Zeinab bus station NIGHT COMM Sayyida Zeinab bus station, the terminal for Baghdad. There's a constant flow to buses to, and from, Iraq. Some families did return after media reports that security had improved .Syrian immigration figures show perhaps 18,000 went back in the last three months of 2007.
28:25 But by January 2008, the flow was the other way - 700 a day to Baghdad but 1,200 a day coming back to Damascus. There has been no mass return to Iraq.
28:44 DAMASCUS Tape 922Sayyida Zeinab bus station People loading bags onto buses for journey to Baghdad. COMMUN research suggests that most of those returning permanently have no choice. Nearly half say they have run out of money. A quarter say their Syrian residence permits have expired.
28:58 Faiz loading bags WS family in back of bus COMM After three years in Damascus, Faiz is one of
those who is bankrupt.
29:0429:17 CU Faiz Naji with wife and daughters in back of bus Tape 922Faiz Naji08:28To be honest, we're very happy Even though our house has been blown up and they took everything we have but we're happy. I just want to breathe the air of Baghdad again...I'm quite confident about the security there In the end, I'd rather die in Baghdad than die here
29:26 Bus drives off
29:32 BAGHDAD GVs walls and checkpoints round Amiriya COMM Faiz is returning to a wrecked and
still dangerous Iraq. The death toll is down, but still high. 3,300 civilians died in September 2006 at the peak of the sectarian violence; 800 in March 2008.Sectarian militias rule the streets, water and electricity supplies are almost non existent. http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx
30:00 This is the suburb where Faiz and his wife and daughters are staying .It's cut off from the rest of Baghdad by concrete walls. There's just one checkpoint in and out. Faiz and his wife Umm Nawrus are living in a rented house with his brother while he tries to work out how to earn some money.
30:31 Faiz and wife exchange over breakfast Faiz: “What are you doing?” Wife: “Frying eggs ”F: “Who wants to eat?” W: “I might as well.” F: “We’re humiliated renting these houses.” W: “God is generous. Trust God.” F: “Don’t make any for me”
30:47 COMM Faiz and his brothers used to run their own import-export company.Unable to move safely across the city, let alone across the country, that scale of business is impossible now.The brother he's staying with has started a small TV repair shop.
31:03 Faiz and family in living room tape 94023:35M: “I’ve found a little shop just to feed the kids"
31:07 F: “Are you surviving?”M: “Things are better now Before, you couldn't even get into Amiriya. Now, it's better We can work. Shops have re-opened
31:18 F: “Can you make a living though, with a big family ”M: “I can survive day by day for the sake of the children.”
31:27 “You could find some work, maybe a bakery You could even work with me till you find something else” F: “God is generous. What