Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Iraq + 2 more

OPT: Refugee stories - A boy's journey from Baghdad to Damascus

Damascus, February 2008 - Given 15 year-old Ibrahim Sayyid's sunny outlook on life, you would be surprised to learn the challenges he has had to overcome to study plumbing at the UNRWA Damascus Vocational Training Centre. The Agency is sponsoring Ibrahim's education and providing lodging for him at the Centre during his studies. "I've always been at the top of my class," said Ibrahim as he began telling the story of his journey from Baghdad to Damascus.

Ibrahim attended school up to 7th grade in the Baladiyat suburb of Baghdad. His family was forced to flee Iraq in July 2006 after their lives were increasingly threatened. First, his sister was kidnapped. Her captors demanded $50,000 for her release. Ibrahim's father, Thaer - quite well-off with two stores before the war - had had his savings drained and could only pay $5,000. The kidnappers accepted and his daughter was released the same day.

Then, when Thaer began to receive death threats from a Shia militia, he decided that living in the desert was safer than being a Palestinian in Baghdad. He bought a tent and moved his wife, five children and some of their belongings to the desert. The family found themselves stuck in al-Tanf(1), a makeshift camp between the Iraqi and Syrian borders that now hosts nearly 600 Palestinian refugees from the war-torn state.

Ibrahim studied for the Syrian 9th grade exams for three months underneath a white canvas tent, next to another makeshift structure that housed an UNRWA school for the more than 100 school-aged youngsters. UNRWA trained camp residents as teachers for the facility. Aside from education, the Agency provides health, relief and social services in the camp, with funding from the Welfare Association in Jordan.

During the period that Ibrahim studied for his exams, a fire broke out in al-Tanf, partially destroying the tent that he shared with his family. Nevertheless, he was one of two students from the camp who passed the Syria Ministry of Education's 9th grade exams.

Al-Tanf camp lies just 100 metres away from the Syrian customs area, off the Baghdad-Damascus highway. The nearest hospitals and schools are 2.5 hours away. Many of the youth there are too old to take the Syrian qualifying exams and have little chance of going to college. Finding a job in such a remote location is also out of the question. This has lead a number of the youngsters in al-Tanf to become increasingly despondent "The situation is getting more and more desperate as they wait in isolation with an uncertain future," said Astrid Haaland, UNRWA's coordinator for Iraqi-Palestinian refugees.

At the Damascus Training Centre, Ibrahim says he will not stop his educational journey with his two-year plumbing course. "I want to be a doctor", he explains cheerfully. It is difficult for Iraqis to study medicine or find jobs in Syria, but Ibrahim hopes to find a way to achieve this ambitious career goal. His drive is representative of the commitment to education espoused by many Palestinian refugees. "You have to study hard to get out from living in a tent," says Ibrahim.

By Lachlyn Soper

Note

(1) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) serves as the lead agency for all refugees from Iraq, and supplies food, fuel and water to the camp. UNRWA signed a memorandum of understanding with UNHCR in 2007 to provide basic health, education and social services to Palestinians fleeing Iraq. The Agency also administers relief services to more than 300 refugees living in al-Hol camp in eastern Syria, as well as to more than 2,700 Palestinians from Iraq living in the general population.