Bad host: Iraqi refugees left to live on Delhi streets

HOMELESS IN DELHI: Iraqi doctor Shahad Khalil wants her family to be resettled in another country.

Other stories in the section:

Sobhraj's new love could spell legal trouble for him

Sobhraj is believed to be already married to two women.

• Pak terror reminder: 18 dead in Lal Masjid blast

Featured Blog

Abhishek Patni

MAULANA MULAYAM AND PERILS OF NUCLEAR DEAL

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: Shahad Khalil, an Iraqi refugee, has been waiting outside the United Nations Human Rights Commission office in Delhi for the past seven days. Shahad and her family fled Iraq after the US attack in August last year. Homeless in the foreign soil, the 27-year-old doctor wants to be resettled in another country.

"We just want to ask all the embassies just to listen to us to gain resettlement or just contact UNHCR and give me and my family a beautiful life. We want to start again," Shahad says.

Shahad in not alone in her struggle. There are two other families apart from hers who are battling similar fate. 27-year-old Roaa Sardan has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Baghdad, but today she only has a piece of paper as her identity proof.

Roaa's father was a powerful government official in the Saddam regime, but in Delhi she is working as a domestic help for Rs 500 a month. "I went to UNHCR many times to find out why my case is sleeping. They told me we cannot do anything for you. You can do what you want. You can sleep on the streets, find any job. We cannot do anything for you," Roaa says.

Almost every city has areas identified as refugee colonies where people who have fled civil strife and sought refuge in India have settled down. But many families that left war-torn Iraq and now living in Delhi have been left to live on the streets.

The UNHCR has only one explanation for the plight of these homeless refugees. "There are 11,000 refugees in India and some of them have been waiting for over 20 years. How can we push these cases over all others?" UNHCR External Relations Officer Nayana Bose explains.

Homeless and desperate, the Iraqi refugees in India have now taken it upon themselves to contact embassies directly and find out if they would be welcomed anywhere.