Grim past, dim future for Iraqi exiles in Syria

CAIRO, Egypt – One in five Iraqi refugees in Syria had been tortured or suffered from other violence in Iraq, and more than a third fled their homeland between July and October, at the height of the U.S. troop buildup that was meant to quell sectarian violence in Baghdad, preliminary data from a U.N. study show.

The study also found the refugee population is highly educated – nearly a third have university degrees, including master's and doctoral degrees – and that many are just weeks away from using up their savings.

The survey, which the IPSOS market research firm conducted in October and November, is the most comprehensive study to date of the 1.5 million Iraqis who've sought safety in Syria from the sectarian violence at home. The results are based on interviews with 754 refugees. Full results are expected in January.

The U.N. survey includes special questions about trauma that researchers from Harvard University and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hope will help them determine for the first time the extent to which the violence in Iraq has damaged the mental health and stability of the war's survivors.

The survey may provide some insight into the impact of U.S. actions. The preliminary results suggest that as American forces moved into Baghdad's neighborhoods to establish security, large numbers of Iraqis moved out.

Of the refugees polled, 78 percent said they'd come from Baghdad, which has been the focus of military operations since the U.S. troop buildup began in February. Thirty-five percent said they'd fled between July and October, when U.S. troop strength peaked.

Another 30 percent said they had fled to Syria last year, as violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims intensified.

More than half the survey's participants said they had received direct threats or had lived through bombings. Eleven percent had been assaulted and 6 percent had been kidnapped.

The proportion of refugees with missing or dead relatives has risen steadily in the past four years; 54 percent had dead or missing family members this year, up from 22 percent last year. Murder was cited as the cause of death in 78 percent of the cases in the U.N. survey.

A majority of respondents, 62 percent, blamed sectarian militias for the deaths. Twenty-eight percent listed "unknown" and 2 percent listed "al-Qaida."

Sybella Wilkes, the Damascus-based U.N. spokeswoman on refugee issues, said the survey's results on financial instability confirmed the observations of field workers. Forty percent of refugees have been living in Syria for less than a year, the study found, and they're finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

"We've seen the poorest of the poor here," Wilkes said. "We're seeing more homelessness, child labor, survival sex, early marriage and temporary marriage. The floodgates opened in 2006, and the Iraqis who've come since then have been much poorer" than earlier waves of refugees.

Thirty-three percent of the Iraqis surveyed predicted that they'd run out of money within three months, while a quarter of the refugees depend on remittances from relatives.

Nearly all refugees are renters, and 71 percent of them live with other family members in apartments with two to four rooms. Nearly a quarter of respondents lived in one-room housing.

Groceries are a top expense, and most respondents said they hadn't received any food assistance from the United Nations or other agencies.

Rice and lentils were listed as the most-needed staples. As of November, 51,000 Iraqis in Syria received monthly food baskets from the United Nations' World Food Program.

Education is another troubling issue. Less than 3 percent of the Iraqi adults surveyed were illiterate, and 35 percent of them had attended universities. But dropout rates among school-age refugees have more than doubled since May, from 21 percent to 46 percent. Of those who have dropped out, 19 percent are working.

Health care also is precarious. Although an estimated 19,000 refugees registered with the United Nations have chronic illnesses, 19 percent aren't taking medication because they can't afford it.

About the writer:

• Hannah Allam is the Cairo bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers.