Hopes Languish For Kurdish Refugees In Iraq Watching Iran Vote
Sumaira FH Published June 16, 2021 | 09:40 AM
Arbil, Iraq, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jun, 2021 ) ::Stuck in Iraq for decades due to a lack of documents, Kurdish refugees from neighbouring Iran are watching elections in the Islamic republic this week with little hope for change.
One of them, Behzad Mahmoudi, died after setting himself on fire last month in front of a UN office in Arbil, the capital of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
His death put the spotlight on the plight of the refugees in Iraqi limbo.
"The UN doesn't want to see us or hear our problems," said Ashkan Mirani, an Iranian Kurd in a United Nations refugee camp outside Arbil.
Four months ago, Mirani decided to leave for Europe with his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter.
They were smuggled from Iraq into Turkey, where they boarded a boat in the Black Sea with around 120 other would-be migrants.
"After one hour on the boat, strong waves started hitting us. We all thought we were going to die," said the 30-year-old.
"Thanks to the Afghan refugees who called the Turkish coastguard... they came to our rescue." A decade ago, Mirani joined a Kurdish opposition party in Iran, hoping to improve the lives of his people.
But life there is "is unbearable and unliveable due to economic and political hardship," he said.
"And here... I can't promise my family that tomorrow will be any better than today. The only solution I can think of is to try to reach Europe once again." Today, he struggles each day to feed for his children, a task the UN says is twice as difficult for refugees as for citizens of Iraq, whose lives have been battered by decades of war and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Baghdad refuses to grant citizenship to Iranian refugees, even those who have been living in the country for more than 40 years.
Until 2003, under late dictator Saddam Hussein, there were 16,000 Kurdish refugees living in Iraq, the UN says.
There are now more than 10,700, the vast majority in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Arbil only grants them residency permits allowing them to work and travel within the autonomous region's three provinces if they can find a guarantor. Baghdad does not recognise their validity.
That means the only way out for them is to obtain asylum in a third country -- but few applications are accepted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Goran, 29, was born in Arbil after her parents emigrated from Iran.
"My father died without being able to return to Iran," she told AFP. "I'm afraid that one day my kids will say the same thing about their mother and father." But she cannot envisage moving to her homeland without a change of regime.
That is an option she says she "doesn't believe in".
And with ultraconservative, Ebrahim Raisi, seen as the frontrunner in Friday's Iranian presidential election, Moustafa Ibrahim and his wife Fatima Pirozee are downbeat about the result.
"I have zero faith in the Iranian presidential elections," said Ibrahim, 67, who has been a political refugee in Iraq for 40 years.
"The candidates are the faces of the same coin. Nothing will change. In Iran, elections after elections, conditions only get worse." At one point eight years ago Ibrahim said he believed change was possible, when then-candidate Hassan Rouhani promised to include Kurdish in the school curriculum and help develop Kurdish regions.
But Ibrahim said that once Rouhani became president, nothing was done.
His wife, 60, is more concerned about current negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
"The Iranian regime will oppress their people more if the economic sanctions are lifted," she said.
"More money for the Iranian regime means more support to the Iranian proxy militias in the region."
Related Topics
Recent Stories
At least 10 people killed in Brazil fire: officials
Shahzaib Rind calls on Deputy Speaker Balochistan
Ahsan chairs 13th CPEC-JCC preparatory meeting, reviews arrangements for high-le ..
DC Tharparkar inaugurates anti-polio campaign
HDA Mehran workers demand salaries
Taxila police nab motorcycle lifter gang
Inter-university weightlifting championship kicks off at SAU
Walk held in a series of enrollment campaigns
Team from Gaza mediator Egypt arrives in Israel for truce talks
Kids murders: IHC orders psychiatric examination of mother
Health minister credits PML-N for advancements in organ transplantation
Court grants interim bail to Azam Swati in cyber crime case
More Stories From Miscellaneous
-
Modern Education Techniques: A pathway to achieve economic development
11 hours ago -
Kite Flying: From cultural festival to deadly sport
12 hours ago -
PDMA predicts gusty wind, rain with thunder, hails
3 days ago -
Iranian president Raisi given guard of honour at PM House
4 days ago -
Intellectuals, writers accolades Naseer Mirza on his literary contribution
5 days ago -
Bahawalpur Adabi Sangat hosts memorable mushaira
5 days ago
-
Cattle farming vital to alleviate poverty in rural areas
5 days ago -
Pakistan: A land of tourism, archeological wonders
6 days ago -
Transforming education sector: from job hunters to job creators
7 days ago -
Amjad Bobby remembered on 19th death anniversary for timeless contributions to music
11 days ago -
Legendary actor Nadeem’s 26 films released on Eid-ul-Fitr days in 50 years
12 days ago -
Besant Hall Cultural Centre to celebrate evening with Sanam Marvi on 26 April
12 days ago