<p>Kazanlack minefield, near Kirkuk, northern Iraq.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Iraqis&nbsp;who&nbsp;pick&nbsp;over&nbsp;their&nbsp;country&#39;s&nbsp;old&nbsp;battlefields&nbsp;for&nbsp;military&nbsp;scrap&nbsp;metal&nbsp;and&nbsp;wiring&nbsp;have&nbsp;few other ways to make a living, but&nbsp;the&nbsp;task comes with enormous risks. Emma LeBlanc</p>
<p>Kazanlack minefield, near Kirkuk, northern Iraq.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Iraqis&nbsp;who&nbsp;pick&nbsp;over&nbsp;their&nbsp;country&#39;s&nbsp;old&nbsp;battlefields&nbsp;for&nbsp;military&nbsp;scrap&nbsp;meShow more

Iraq's minefields put impoverished scrap collectors in grave danger



The Iraqis who pick over their country's old battlefields for military scrap metal and wiring have few other ways to make a living but the task comes with enormous risks.

So numerous are the wounds inflicted by mines and unexploded ordnance in Jurf Al Milh that the southern Iraqi village is better known as Al Bitran, which means "the amputees" in the local dialect.

Hundreds of villagers have lost limbs to mines and unexploded ordnance from Iraq's war with Iran from 1980 through1988.

Al Bitran, east of the city of Basra, is near the Shatt Al Arab waterway which marks the border with Iran.

The first victims were mainly sheep herders who took their flocks to graze in areas not marked as minefields, even though they were strewn with unexploded bombs and artillery shells.

Sheno Abdullah is one of those who lost a leg in an explosion. "In 1980, when the war began, Iranian planes dropped bombs on our region at dawn, everybody left but a few," he said.

"When the war ended, people returned but they didn't know that the land was full of mines," he said, speaking at the small mosque where he serves sometimes as muezzin.

In 1991, the village, like the rest of Iraq, descended deeper into poverty as a result of international sanctions imposed on the country following the occupation of Kuwait.

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Collecting scrap metal and electric wires from military hardware left on the battlefields became a means of livelihood for many in the village, and the result was an increase in the number of people maimed.

"I was out [in the field] to seek my living from God, collecting iron and copper; the kilogram of flour had become so expensive," said Falih, who lost a leg and five finger tips in an explosion.

As the number of amputees grew in southern Iraq, a prosthetics and orthotics workshop opened in Basra in 1995 with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross, providing artificial limbs to about 8,000 patients.

The workshop makes up to 50 prosthetic parts a month. About a third of the patients who come to the centre lost limbs because of diabetes, 10 per cent suffered various kinds of accidents, with the rest mainly war and war-related casualties, including Al Bitran villagers, said one of the centres' directors, Mohsen Al Sayed.

Shiite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation began a demining campaign last month near Al Bitran, using bulldozers and specialised vehicles to clear the desert area.

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.”

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
A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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Black Panther
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