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Living in Jordan, Longing for Iraq
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"We hope we can go to Baghdad just to feel the feel of belonging," said Eskendrian's wife, Ida.
"But we hear the news from Iraq and see footage on TV and lose hope" of going back, she said.
Alwan understands. He worked as an interpreter for U.S. forces in Iraq after the invasion. Dozens of his colleagues were either killed or threatened, he said, with some escaping assassination attempts. He had a computer shop in Baghdad, but he closed it and came to Jordan after a threatening letter was thrown in his back yard with a CD showing the slaughter of several Iraqis, whom the letter called spies.
When Alwan arrived here, he applied for a visa to go to the United States, but he was turned down -- "after I served them for months," he said bitterly. In Amman, he wore the gray U.S. Army T-shirt that he never could wear in Baghdad.
Because he holds a degree in software engineering, he managed to find a job at a telecommunications company in Amman. The job pays about $850 a month. Compared with other Iraqis, Alwan leads an easy life now. But "we don't have rights. We are Iraqis, after all," he said.
Getting legal residency status in Jordan is becoming more difficult, Iraqis here said. Few are granted even two weeks' residency. Most are given 72 hours to one week maximum, Iraqis said, and some are put on the next flight back to Baghdad.
Many, like Eskendrian's family, live here illegally, which subjects them to a fine of about $2 for each day they stay after their visas expire. Many prefer paying over returning.
Eskendrian said he recently had to pay more than $1,600 to the immigration office. He doesn't have a job and his savings are running out, he said. Even his daughters are "living in a cage now," Eskendrian said. "They cannot go out, because they would need money to spend -- a luxury we don't enjoy."
"We are living on the hope that the situation improves in Iraq and we could go back," he said, his eyes sparkling with shy tears. "I don't know how long we can endure this."
