Palestinians Flee Iraq to India

After the situation in Iraq worsened, Yunus decided to take the rest of the family to Indian. (IOL photo)

With frayed tempers, around 500 displaced Palestinians, including women and children and 20 disabled persons, live in poor South Delhi localities from day to day, without any aim and little hope.

They wake up every morning with a hope that a letter will arrive from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office here informing them that a certain country has agreed to accept them as refugees.

While Western countries, including Australia and New Zealand, have been accepting other refugees from India like Iraqis, no country has to date accepted any Palestinian.

The Palestinians started fleeing Iraq when, according to refugees I spoke to, Shiite militia started killing them simply because they were Palestinian Sunnis in what these refugees refer to as al-qatl 'ala al-hawiyya - murder by the identity card.

In other words, Palestinians were being killed simply because they were Palestinians.

Most of the Palestinian refugees in Delhi come from the Baladiyat quarter of Baghdad, which was built by President Ahmad Hasan Al-Bakr in 1973 to house Palestinian refugees.

This locality housed ten thousand Palestinians at the start of the American invasion but today, according to these refugees, its population has dwindled to less than 5000.

Palestinians still living in Al-Baladiyat, in spite of receiving daily threats and facing the risk of murder any time, are the ones who do not have enough money to flee.

According to a refugee here, a fake Iraqi passport allowing them to travel abroad costs at least two thousand dollars.

Despite this hurdle, some estimates that around 3500 Iraq-based Palestinians flee Iraq in various direction everyday.

Indian New Zealand

I meet Ahmad Mahmoud Yunus in Delhi's Vasant Kunj locality.

Born in Baghdad in 1952, he looks much older than his age.

His father had fled Palestine to Iraq in 1948 hoping to return to his homeland within weeks but his dream remained unfulfilled until he breathed his last in Iraq a few years back without ever setting foot again in Palestine.

Yunus worked in the Iraqi public works department. After a service of 30 years, he was head of the department of water pipes maintenance when he fled Baghdad late in 2006.

Yunus says that the problems started a year after the American occupation when the Mahdi Army of Shiite leader Muqtada el-Sadr became strong.

It started threatening Palestinians and told them to leave Iraq if they wanted to escape death.

One fine morning in early 2006, a computer-printed letter was slipped through their door.

Accompanied with a live bullet, the letter told them that they all will be killed if they did not leave Iraq.

Yunus decided to send his eldest son 'Alaa, 27, to some distant land.

A deal was struck with an Iraqi Kurdish smuggler to send 'Alaa to New Zealand for a hefty charge of 7000 American dollars.

The smuggler secured a fake Iraqi passport and other required papers and embarked on a circuitous journey to New Zealand with a small group which included 'Alaa.

Soon they found themselves in the Indian capital.

Here the smuggler took their fake passports and the balance of the payment and disappeared saying that he was going to secure visas for them.

They never saw him again. The group was left high and dry in an unknown land.

This was in March 2006.

Then they approached UNHCR, which accepted them as "refugees" and issued them papers to save them from harassment at the hands of Indian authorities.

Refugees

Back in Iraq, the situation only worsened so much so that Yunus decided in December 2006 to leave for India along with his wife, daughter and two sons to join 'Alaa.

They too applied to the UNHCR to be recognized as "refugees".

After many formalities they too were accepted as refugees and started drawing meager allowances which does not fulfill their basic requirements.

A recognized refugee head of household receives 2245 rupees (US$ 56) every month while each dependant gets 750 rupees (US$ 18.75).

Even this pittance is paid for the first six months, thereafter the allowance of the head of family is reduced to 1400 rupees while dependents start getting only 600 rupees per month.

To get this meager allowance every applicant has to wait for 6-8 months while his/her application is processed, he/she is interviewed and the result is assessed by higher officials.

In the beginning each applicant fills up an application and signs a two-page long undertaking that he will abide by the UN and Indian laws.

A few months later he is called for a thorough interrogation by UN officers. If they are satisfied that the applicant in deed is a refugee, he is given a temporary certificate bearing his name and photograph on a white paper.

A few months later he is given a permanent certificate with his particulars and photograph on blue paper. Now he is a UN-recognized refugee.

After this stage the UNHCR starts to pay him/her the meager monthly allowance which is reduced after the first six months and is liable to re-evaluation after a year.

An official of the UNHCR here said that until 31 July this year, the UN agency had officially accepted 153 Palestinians as refugees.

The allowance hardly covers a week's expenses in this expensive city.

Yunus receives a total of 5800 rupees ($145) every month out of which he pays 5000 rupees as rent for the flat his family occupies in a poor south Delhi suburb.

His new home lacks furniture and facilities except electricity and a mobile telephone.

Alaa, the son, says they cannot afford to buy packaged water and drink tap water, leaving everyone in the family of some stomach problem as a result.

The refugees do not suffer only from alienation and poverty but also from ignorance of the Indian language and culture.

They say the Indian society does not make them feel welcome.

The reason may be because they are living in Hindu localities where eating meat and even onion is not appreciated.