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More Iraqis go north, fleeing violence
The United Nations begins a conference Tuesday to address the growing number of refugees fleeing Iraq and their homes within the country.
from the April 17, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The trouble in getting into Arbil
The Arbil-based Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which was granted autonomy to administer three Kurdish-majority provinces in the north, sees itself as a model of stability and says its borders are open to Iraqis.
"This is their home and all are welcome," says police chief Abdullah Khaylani. "You must respect anyone who is coming to you and needs help. These people are suffering."
But the price for peace is a vigilant security apparatus, reinforced by broad popular support and strict preconditions: Those wishing to enter must have a Kurdish sponsor; entrants pass through a series of security checkpoints on arrival, after which they must go directly to the Directorate of Residence to register. Personal files are kept and updated, as emigres return and report their employment and living status.
Arab Iraqis who have "a profession or the funds to be economically viable in the north have the easiest time entering into the region," says Dana Graber, internally displaced people monitoring officer for the International Organization for Migration. "Otherwise, it is very difficult for Arab Iraqis to enter," he adds, though he expects an influx of refugees to continue to head north as instability deepens elsewhere.
Hassan and his best friend, Abbas Khafaji, another Arab Iraqi refugee from Baghdad, feel indebted to Salim Agrawe, the Kurdish co-owner of the Milano Motel, for offering them a job before they left Baghdad. They say he has treated them like sons without regard to their Arab identity; Salim insists the privilege is his own. But the tight restrictions in the Kurdish north often lead to other Arab Iraqis who have emigrated being treated as second-class citizens.
Hana lives in a decrepit apartment complex, a 10-minute drive from the Milano Motel, with two other women from the south. She fled Baghdad eight months ago to get away from a radical husband who, she says, was "very active" in the insurgency.
She made it to Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in the Kurdish region, where a woman's organization found her a job, and she soon moved to Arbil.
Here, Hana found "another kind of suffering," says the friend who took her in, Vian al-Khaledi, a women's activist of Kurdish-Arab background who also left Baghdad last year after seven neighbors were executed in the same evening. Ms. Khaledi described the frustrations of many women who have come looking for a fresh start.
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