120,000 Iraqis enduring an unhappy limbo in Egypt

Refugees complain that they still do not feel welcome, but many say they are wary of returning home.

CAIRO // More than three years after thousands of Iraqis fled to Egypt to escape sectarian violence in their war-torn country, many say they still do not feel welcome here, but are wary of returning home. "I wish I could go back home, but the security situation is still not good; electricity and water are not available all the time, and prices are very high," said Abdel Khedr Abdullah Jawad, who left Iraq with his wife and two sons in early 2006, after violence between Sunni and Shias flared.
The family now lives in a sparsely furnished rented flat in 6th of October City, 20km south-west of Cairo, nicknamed "New Baghdad" for the thousands of Iraqis who have settled there. Egypt has become a popular destination for Iraqis. Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were less than 800 Iraqis living here. That number has swollen to 120,000, according to the Iraqi Embassy, with a further 10,600 registered with the United Nations as refugees.
"I chose Egypt because I'd never visited it and had heard it's cheap and that they like Iraqis," said Mr Jawad, 56, known as Abu Mohammed, after his eldest son. "But I discovered that Egyptians don't like us to come and work here, they consider us taking away work from them," he said. Not long after he arrived, Mr Jawad opened an ice cream shop with other Iraqi businessmen. But it was not successful and soon closed. After several failed attempts to open another business, Mr Jawad is no longer working and is living off his savings, which are running out.
Despite being surrounded by other Iraqis, he still misses home. "Being away from home is difficult and bad. I miss Iraq despite everything. Many Iraqis miss Saddam's days and I'm one of them," he said. His two sons, Mohammed, eight, and Omar, seven, go to a private Egyptian school and are able to easily switch between Iraqi and Egyptian dialects. Mr Jawad's wife, Sanaa, 38, complained that shop owners regularly raise the prices when they hear her thick Iraqi accent.
"This makes me very disappointed. That's why we hardly buy anything, except food from here, actually from Iraqi shops that are everywhere around us. I wish we could go back to Iraq, but I don't see this happening soon. We escaped out of fear for our kids' lives; the fear is still there," she said. The Iraqi government is trying to encourage its exiles to come home. Last month it organised two planes to take Iraqis who could not afford the price of the flight back.
Mrs Jawad, who wears a veil, said she also does not reveal to Egyptians that she is a Shiite. Her husband is a Sunni. In Sunni Egypt, many Shiites do not feel welcome, especially with rising tensions between their Egypt and Shiite-dominated Iran. There were reports that Shiites were trying to build their own mosque, called Husseiniat, in 6th of October City but that authorities would not allow it. Officials would not confirm the reports.
With high rates of inflation and unemployment, Egyptians are growing less accepting of refugees. Many Egyptians blame Iraqis for rising property prices in 6th of October City, which was initially built for Egypt's middle class. Khair Zad supermarket is not far from Mr Jawad's home and offers Iraqis a little taste of home, such as kobba (meat balls) and pickles. "Eighty per cent of my customers are Arabs, mainly Iraqis," said Ali Mohammed Rahim, 37, the owner of the supermarket. "I moved here with my mother and siblings three years ago. We are happy here, Egyptians are kind people, but we wish we could go back home," he said.
He employs five Iraqis and three Egyptians in his supermarket. "My husband went back to Iraq, while I'm staying here with my kids," said Nebras Adnan, 32, as she left Khair Zad supermarket with her four children. "We are all suffering from lack of jobs here, we are running out of money, I'm worried about my husband, but what can we do. I wish we were all able to go back today before tomorrow. I wish we didn't have to leave in the first place," she said.
Not far from the supermarket, the smells of Iraqi and pita bread are a reminder of a different time for Haider Saeed, in his late 20s. Mr Saeed said he had received death threats by militants in the bakery he was working at in Baghdad because US soldiers and Iraqi policemen used to eat there. He moved to Egypt almost three years ago after his father died in a car explosion. Behind him hangs the Iraqi flag as well as a photo of him at the Zaid bakery in Baghdad.
"I'm making 20 [Egyptian] pounds (Dh14) a day, and living with several Iraqis in a small flat. I miss my family terribly, but I can't go back to Iraq and get killed like my father," he said.
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