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On a narrow street in a slum area of downtown Istanbul a group of Iraqi men gather under the neon glow of a floodlight. This is the Kumkapi neighborhood, frequented by refugees and immigrants from Africa, Eastern Europe and now Iraq. As the situation continues to deteriorate in Iraq, more and more people, those who have the finances and physical ability, are choosing to flee the chaos and head into neighboring Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
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Once settled in these new countries, the refugees face incredible difficulties, not only fitting into a new culture, one which often does not welcome them, but the decision of whether to return to Iraq, stay where they are or attempt to illegally enter Greece in hopes of gaining EU citizenship.
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The topic of conversation this evening is as it is most evenings: One young man without any money whatsoever, has been sleeping on a discarded couch outdoors and only meters from the train tracks. Last night there was rain and he spent another night in discomfort and without sleep.
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Four of the other men share a small hotel room and each one shows off the patches of red bites they receive every night from the bugs that live in their bedding.
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One of the older men who gave several hundred dollars to broker who helps people sneak across the border into Greece is nervous and distracted, wondering where the man is with his money. Other men show off broken fingers and burn marks which they say they received during interrogations by U.S. troops and bullet wounds from U.S. rifle fire.
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Others discuss news from home: the loss of friends and family and daily car bombings.
None of these men are happy. They spend most of their days on this one block, frequenting a internet café that is run by Iraqi men who immigrated here years ago. They check their emails, read the news online and then congregate on the streets in front of the café to socialize and network with each other. They are in a sort of limbo, unable to work and make money but unable to do anything else either.
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Each of these men has claimed to be Palestinian in order to get the papers that allow them to remain in Istanbul for two months. This area is rough and everyone in it has a story, they find the Turkish people harsh and unsympathetic.
The situation for most of them looks bleak. As the rate of immigrants coming through Istanbul in order to make the illegal crossing into Greece increases year by year, the journey becomes much more dangerous. During the day you hear countless stories of police brutality and abuse suffered by those trying to make the crossing...and stories of death by starvation or dehydration to those who attempted the journey by sea. The living situations in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon are similar and as the number of Iraqi refugees reaches four million, they will find themselves less and less welcome in their new homelands.
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Thank you for your work, Zoriah. I am outraged that you have been disembedded. We have discussed you and the NYT article at our site.
Posted by: Lisa | August 01, 2008 at 06:29
i am realy destroy about your photographic documentaries. It' terrible, i live in Belgium and i didn't know realy wath's appening from Irak. I can't say anything just it's realy realy terrible, my god !
every picture is a die.
Posted by: Charlyne gerard | August 01, 2008 at 11:30
Getting to Greece is fraught with danger as well as hundreds of immigrants die every year, either drowned in the Aegeon or victims of the minefields that lace the Greek-Turkish borders.
Also Greece has become increasingly hostile to such refugees with just 2% being granted official refugee status. There are also very worrying reports about human rights abuses in the "reception centres" across the country.
Posted by: Craig | August 30, 2008 at 20:14
all kind of disgrace and suffering only because one men want to become more rich, dude this totally nonsense, the suffering is not only for the Iraq side, think in the families that feel so pain in their house waiting for a familiar.
Posted by: Generic Viagra | August 04, 2010 at 20:04