SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, 11 August 2005 — Each morning before dawn, hundreds of Arabs from southern Iraq gather near a mosque in this northern Kurdish city hoping to find work on one of scores of construction sites dotting the landscape.
What began 18 months ago as a trickle of poor, unemployed young men moving north to find work and escape violence in predominantly Arab areas has now turned into a rapid stream. And it’s no longer just the poor and jobless fleeing.
Professionals — including doctors, engineers and teachers — are following them, desperate to escape the chaos tearing cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Baquba and Hilla apart.
“I came here for safety, and for my family,” says Dr. Ali Alwan, 40, an eye specialist who moved from the southern city of Basra to Sulaimaniya in late 2003 and has since encouraged dozens of former colleagues to follow him.
“Here it is a wonderful life. The children are in school, my wife is happy and there is good work,” he says. “I don’t think I will ever return to Basra.” Around 25 eye specialists alone have since taken the same route out of Basra, he says. At the Razgari outpatient clinic in Sulaimaniya, eight of the 13 doctors are Arabs who arrived in the past two years, according to director Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.
Young trainees, desperately needed in places like Baghdad and Basra where hospitals are understaffed and overworked, are also getting out. At Sulaimaniya’s teaching hospital, 20 of this year’s interns — the majority — are from Basra.
“Here things are normal, we are a normal hospital,” says Karzan Sirwan, a Kurdish surgeon at the hospital. “I can understand why they come, and we need them too.” There are sometimes language barriers - most Arabs don’t speak Kurdish — but since all Iraq’s doctors are trained in English, they can communicate with one another, and translators are on hand to help doctors talk to Kurdish patients.
It’s a similar situation at Sulaimaniya’s university, where 40 Arab professors have joined the staff in the past two years, university officials say.
While the newly arrived professionals are generally well paid — most medics make around $500 a month or more — the bulk of the labor flowing to Sulaimaniya is unskilled or semi-skilled and barely scrapes a living.
There are no hard figures on the total number who have migrated since the war, but an official in Sulaimaniya’s investment office put it in the thousands in Sulaimaniya alone.
Hundreds of poor Arab men gather in the center of town each morning waiting to be taken to building sites by contractors. Many are recognizable by their headdress and darker features.
Mohammed Abbas, a 28-year-old Shiite from Baghdad, came to Sulaimaniya two months ago. He works construction when he can find a job, and sells cigarettes otherwise. “There is nothing for me to do in Baghdad,” he says. “At least here I can make $20 a day most days.” He says hundreds from his area of Baghdad have done the same thing to escape.
“I send money home to my family and when I have enough I will return to Baghdad and get married,” he says. At night, they sleep in Sulaimaniya’s parks and squares. Those that have construction jobs sleep on site. At night, small fires can be seen burning inside half-built buildings.
Haider Salim Djuluwi, 20, came from Kut, in the southeast of Iraq, two months ago, looking for summer holiday work. He’s now making $10 a day as an unskilled laborer for a new court house. “Friends came before me and said it was good. Twelve of us came together,” he said. “I’m not thinking about a better life, just about making some money and staying safe.”
In Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, there has also been an influx of Arabs. Yacoub, a barber in the main hotel in town, came three months ago from Baghdad.
“Too many of my friends were threatened,” he said, referring to barbers who have been killed by militants for cutting hair in western styles or shaving beards. “Here I feel much safer.” The language barrier is a problem, but he has found a house in a Christian village, where most people speak Arabic. “The money is good and the people are friendly,” he says. “I can’t see myself ever going back to Baghdad.”
