DAMASCUS // There are papers piled on the table in front of me, dozens of sheets and scraps, perhaps a hundred, maybe more. Old chewing gum wrappers, a torn cigarette packet, pages ripped from a small notebook with "welcome" printed at the top in blue letters, sections from a diary.
Scrawled on every piece is a refugee code, sometimes a name, sometimes a phone number. Each one is a plea for help. They were pushed into my hands or stuffed into my pockets and my bag by a mob of desperate Iraqis. They had been queuing up outside the United Nations office in Damascus last Tuesday, as usual, sitting in the morning sun, hoping against the odds, and against all previous experience, that today would be the day something changed in their lives for the better.
Tuesday is resettlement day, when a refugee finds out if he or she has been accepted as an asylum seeker in Europe or the US. The normal drill for an Iraqi refugee here is: flee from your family home in fear for your life, arrive in Syria, register at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), get put on a list and then wait. Probably for years.
If you're really poor you may get some financial help, although not nearly enough to live on. If you have a serious medical problem there might be some aid, but you will have to pay a contribution towards it. You cannot work, you cannot easily travel to another country and, because you ran from violence and instability at home you cannot really go back. Damascus is a beautiful, hospitable city, but for Iraqi refugees, it is a trap, a place for apparently endless waiting.
Some Iraqis here ran from the war six years ago and have been in limbo ever since, too afraid to go home or with nothing much left to return to, a sense that their futures - their children's futures - lay in the peaceful and prosperous West.
There are more than 200,000 Iraqis in Syria registered with the United Nations, although there are tens of thousands more Iraqis living here. Since 2007, 28,000 of the UNHCR cases have been submitted to third countries for resettlement, with 10,593 accepted.
The majority who are left behind are forced to wait in silence with each passing month they grow increasingly desperate, despairing of the future and angry. Savings dwindle, children grow up into rootless young adults, the middle aged become elderly, the elderly die.
Which is why, last Tuesday, hundreds of refugees decided to hold a rare protest outside the UNHCR office. They were going to be there anyway, so it did not require much organisation. One person painted a slogan saying, "Why do they keep us homeless". The media were invited but only three journalists turned up.
I was the only foreigner outside the office, and a quiet Iraqi woman in her 60s, dressed in a black abaya, came up and spoke to me. She did not ask for anything, she just started telling her story, sketching the outlines - a murdered husband, no children, poverty, homelessness.
More refugees began to gather around, listening in, and another woman started to tell her story, speaking of her desperation. Others began to talk at the same time, raising their voices, almost shouting to be heard above the rising noise. Quickly and unhappily I had become the centre of attention, surrounded by Iraqis waving registration papers in my face, asking to be noticed, asking for someone to listen to their tragedies. Iraqi refugees here, apparently without exception, feel woefully let down by the international community. They feel ignored and that no one cares about the wreckage of their lives. And they have a point. Despite all the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, most refugees get little real help.
An Iraqi man held up his registration papers and asked me to take a photo of them, then another did the same, then others. For no real purpose - what would I be able to do with them? - but it seemed like having the papers on camera would give some affirmation of existence, a piece of photographic evidence of who, what and where these refugees were. I took hundreds of pictures, people tugging my arm asking for their turn, some pushing in front of others, pushing their papers into the camera lens.
Then one of the refugees gave me his registration paper, the copy he had held up in front of me. He had written his phone number on it and asked me to call. More followed suit, scribbling down numbers, names. Those without pens borrowed them, those without copies of their refugee status certificates wrote on anything that came to hand. Papers were shoved at me from every direction and, my hands full, people pushed them into my trouser pockets, my bag.
It never felt threatening but things were getting out of control and a Syrian police officer waded into the small, growing crowd, grabbed me and led me behind the concrete-and-wire barricade that separates the air-conditioned UN offices from the boiling street outside. I waited there for a while, then pushed back out through the crowd, taking more and more papers as I went, promising to call when I caught someone's eye.
I made the promise, unthinkingly, to one woman whose face I'd seen before, somewhere in the swell of people. She was close this time and said, in English, "You promised. You must call. The UN has forgotten us, the world has forgotten us, don't you forget us." With some effort, and some more help from the Syrian police, I got away from the crowd, some stragglers running up, around the police, passing me their papers before running off again.
Back at home, I put all the papers in a bag and successfully forgot about them for an evening. But they sat there, like an accusation or an opportunity or something in between. For a while, last year, Iraqi refugees were a subject that interested the world's media and UN donor countries it was a hot issue. Not any more. No one asks about them now or how the UNHCR in Syria has not yet been able to get the funding it needs this year to keep up medical and financial aid programmes for the destitute.
Iraq is safer now, but tens of thousands of refugees, who have already risked and lost so much, are not prepared to take the chance that fragile security gains will not be reversed. Each new suicide bomb back home, each kidnapping or shooting that we do not read about in the English-language media, each act of corruption or theft gives them another reason to stay in Syria.
The UN still does not recommend that Iraqi's return home, and the UNHCR's Syria office estimates that at least 60,000 of its registered cases are so severe that they cannot go back to Iraq and should instead be relocated to a third country.
That relocation will not happen for most of these Iraqis. The US and Europe are taking more refugees than they once did, but they are still only the tip of the iceberg. With a fickle world now looking to Afghanistan as this year's must-see war-zone, Iraq's refugees are likely to feel increasingly invisible. It may not make any difference, but looking at this pile of papers and phone numbers next to me, I am going to try to get out and speak to as many of the them as I can.
I will hear their stories, and report them, in the hope that doing so will somehow make it impossible for the world to ignore this ongoing humanitarian disaster.
psands@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Results
2.30pm: Expo 2020 Dubai – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: Barakka, Ray Dawson (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)
3.05pm: Now Or Never – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: One Idea, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.40pm: This Is Our Time – Handicap (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Perfect Balance, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar
4.15pm: Visit Expo 2020 – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Kaheall, Richard Mullen, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.50pm: The World In One Place – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1.900m; Winner: Castlebar, Adrie de Vries, Helal Al Alawi
5.25pm: Vision – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Shanty Star, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly
6pm: Al Wasl Plaza – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Jadwal, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
if you go
The flights
Air France offer flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Cayenne, connecting in Paris from Dh7,300.
The tour
Cox & Kings (coxandkings.com) has a 14-night Hidden Guianas tour of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It includes accommodation, domestic flights, transfers, a local tour manager and guided sightseeing. Contact for price.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
A little about CVRL
Founded in 1985 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) is a government diagnostic centre that provides testing and research facilities to the UAE and neighbouring countries.
One of its main goals is to provide permanent treatment solutions for veterinary related diseases.
The taxidermy centre was established 12 years ago and is headed by Dr Ulrich Wernery.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The Details
Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5
Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
Rating: 1.5/5
MEDIEVIL%20(1998)
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20SCE%20Studio%20Cambridge%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sony%20Computer%20Entertainment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PlayStation%2C%20PlayStation%204%20and%205%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3EHigh%20fever%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EIntense%20pain%20behind%20your%20eyes%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESevere%20headache%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ENausea%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EVomiting%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESwollen%20glands%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ERash%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIf%20symptoms%20occur%2C%20they%20usually%20last%20for%20two-seven%20days%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
STAGE%201%20RESULTS
%3Cp%3E1)%20Tim%20Merlier%20(Soudal-Quick-Step)%2C%203h%2017%E2%80%99%2035%E2%80%9D%3Cbr%3E2)%20Caleb%20Ewan%20(Lotto%20Dstny)%20same%20time%3Cbr%3E3)%20Mark%20Cavendish%20(Astana%20Qazaqstan%20Team)%20same%20time%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EGeneral%20Classification%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3E1)%20Tim%20Merlier%20(Soudal%20Quick-Step)%203%3A17%3A25%3Cbr%3E2%20-%20Caleb%20Ewan%20(Lotto%20Dstny)%20%2B4%22%3Cbr%3E3%20-%20Luke%20Plapp%20(Ineos%20Grenadiers)%20%2B5%22%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope
Defenders: John Stones, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Gary Cahill, Ashley Young, Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Midfielders: Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph
Forwards: Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck
