ICC’s Iraq Correspondent
02/28/2017 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – So many people are lost in Iraq. The years of violence plaguing this Middle Eastern nation has left more than four million people internally displaced, or more simply put, lost.
Families have been driven from their homes by terrorists, but they hold onto the hope of one day returning. They have not left their spiraling country for Europe or America, because they have not forgotten how life once was.
Iraq’s Christians have endured more than most. Before ISIS came onto the scene, Shia militias were dedicated to discovering and eliminating Christians in Baghdad and elsewhere. Starting all the way back in 2006, Christians began fleeing their homes to escape this deadly persecution.
“We fled Baghdad in 2011 because my son was beaten by unknown militia[s] two times,” Thaer, 53 years old, told International Christian Concern (ICC). “Both times I went to the police but they told us if [we] could not prove who beat him then [they] could not start their job of finding the guilty men.”
Thaer explained that back then, police authorities also feared the vicious militias in Baghdad, adding to the impunity they enjoyed.
According to Thaer, the first militias began targeting Christians in Baghdad in the early 2000s. It was not uncommon for masked men to attack and plunder the two Christian areas of the capital, Dora and Saydiea. The militants would raid and loot the homes, and then burn the houses beyond livability. They would then purchase the charred remains at an insulting price, leaving the former Christian residents with nothing.
Thaer and his family fled to Qeraqosh, a primarily Christian town in northern Iraq. When ISIS invaded in 2014, the already displaced family had to flee for a second time, this time back to Baghdad.
Thaer explained that the experience was like walking from death, in Qeraqosh, to death, in Baghdad, where he and his loved ones had previously lived under such relentless threat.
Internally displaced people (IDPs) living in Baghdad live quite differently than those elsewhere in Iraq. In the larger camps, such as those in Erbil, Iraqi Christians receive aid from non-governmental organizations and the international community. In Baghdad, however, a smaller and more unnoticed IDP community, IDPs are forced to work to survive. They blend into the city and have to fight for work among more qualified city dwellers.
Mekha is a farmer who is 67 years old. Mekha and his family have always lived and farmed the lands of the Nineveh plains in Qeraqosh and they know nothing else.
“Our lands [are] the best in Iraq for planting,” he proudly told ICC. “We have the best fruits and vegetables because of our good quality lands; we used to work as farmers and we don’t know to do anything but farming.”
When Mekha and his sons first fled Qeraqosh, they landed in Erbil. But after four months without finding shelter, they decided to try their luck in Baghdad.
“Losing [our] lands was the next hardest [thing] to losing a family member. I spent my whole life to increase the areas and work harder and harder to build a future for my sons,” Mekha explained. “Can you imagine that I have three sons and I couldn’t leave anything for them because we lost everything?”
Thankfully, despite the woes of their father, Mekha’s sons have found a way to live in Baghdad. They are often able to find work because of the positive reputations Christians hold as laborers. Mekha’s sons walk each morning to a place where employers come looking for workers. They wait all day and return home if no opportunities come along.
“Many times, the terrorists target places where we stand and wait for people to come and take workers,” Mekha’s son, Matti, told ICC. “We are afraid to go to these places anymore, but the good thing is whenever we work, they trust us and we are preferable since we are Christians.”
Mekha’s family, like many IDPs living in Baghdad, continue to struggle financially in the city. They, along with more than 100 other displaced Iraqi Christian families must decide whether to return to their homes in the countryside, which have since been liberated from ISIS, or try and make a new life for themselves in their current landing spot.