Out of stricken Baghdad, into uncertainty. (Iraqi refugees, CSMonitor, 2/16)

[pinto]

Don't see much about this in 'routine' coverage of the war in Iraq...

Out of stricken Baghdad, into uncertainty.

With an estimated 2 million refugees seeking shelter abroad, officials in Jordan are straining to cope with the crisis.

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor





(Getting Out: Baghdadis at a travel agency last month waited to join 50,000 leaving monthly.
MOHAMMED AMEEN/REUTERS)


AMMAN, JORDAN - A mortar tumbled out of the sky and onto the Baghdad elementary school. Two of their three children were inside. The girls escaped, panicked but unharmed. Parents Mayada and Ali Hussein al-Obeidy decided enough was enough. They were getting out of Iraq.

That was six months ago. Since fleeing Adamiyah, a once middle-class area turned nightmare-zone even by Baghdad standards, the Obeidy family has taken shelter in Amman, Jordan. They spend days waiting. Like most Iraqis here, they aren't allowed to work and haven't been able to renew their temporary residency permits that expired months ago.

On the wall of their apartment are snapshots of the Obeidy's relatives, some living halfway around the world in Texas. There, the Obeidys have a slew of relatives. Mayada's older brother and mother, both citizens of the US, live in El Paso. They have been trying for several years – and recently, with great intensity – to get her and another brother in Amman to join the rest of the family in America.

They haven't been successful and they are not alone. Only 202 Iraqis were permitted to take refuge in the US in 2006. Since the US-led invasion, 466 Iraqis have been allowed entry to the US as refugees, according to figures given by the State Department at a Senate hearing last month. The numbers are particularly stark in comparison with the scope of a burgeoning refugee problem.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0216/p01s03-wome.html