Need-FINDING and ANALYSIS IN JORDAN

CLIENT & CHALLENGE

I traveled to Jordan to work with a local NGO* who was administering a private grant to assist Iraqi Christian refugees.  Most of the attention and resources for refugees from Islamic State (IS) is given to Syrians.  They’re the largest group of refugees and their homeland has been in a state of war since 2011.  But IS is also slaughtering Christians where they have lived for millennia.  The refugees under the care of this NGO are from Mosul, Iraq.  When IS arrived in the city, they were given an option: convert or flee.  No one really knows why these Christians were allowed to leave while others have been killed immediately.  The militants set up “departure clinics,” a sham to make sure the Christians weren’t trying to take valuables on their person.  Then they were then driven to a riverbed and told to follow it until they reached Erbil.  It was a full day’s walk in the Iraqi heat with no food or drink; mothers carried their crying infants. 

*Client has requested name not be disclosed online.

SHORT TERM SOLUTIONS

Thanks to the generosity of a private donor and the willing cooperation of the Jordanian government, these refugees were flown from Erbil, Iraq to Amman, Jordan where they were taken in and housed by the Christian churches of the city.  These churches, of diverse Catholic rites, opened their doors and their pockets to the nearly 1,200 Iraqis.  These refugees were now safe, but they were not stable.  They have been living in church halls, temporary trailers on church property, and cramped apartments with the help of rent assistance for over a year.  Resources and goodwill are running thin. 

THINKING AHEAD

Unlike the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, the Iraqi Christians are not interested in returning to their homeland or staying in their new host countries.  They want to resettle in the West and will consider no alternative.  They are not interested in integrating into their respective host countries, even temporarily, and, by and large, do not seek work in the informal sector.  Countries like the U.S., Australia, Austria, and Canada have special visa programs to take in persecuted minorities like these refugees, but the process still takes years.  This leaves the Iraqis, “living in the future, not the present,” according to a counselor I interviewed that works with the communities.