Iraqi refugee speaks

Issue 

By Nabaz

I am 16 years old and arrived in Australia from Iraq last February.

In Iraq, I had to leave school when I was 11 and get a job to help my family survive. I had to get a labourer's job. The pay and conditions were extremely bad. There were no safety regulations or insurance. Workers risked injury, even death.

Most people in Iraq are extremely poor. It is almost impossible to find a job and even when people get one, the pay is not enough to properly feed their families.

People cannot afford to buy basic necessities. The economic sanctions imposed by the United States mean that there is very little food and medicine to go around, so the prices are very high.

Everyone is forced to join the army. If you refuse, you can be punished, even killed. Lots of people are fighting for democracy in Iraq, and many have been killed by the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein — including my father.

It was extremely hard for my family to come to Australia. When we got here we were hungry and we had no money to buy food or pay rent. We had to stay at the homes of other people.

Even though it was so hard to come to Australia, it is very easy for the government to send us back to Iraq, where we will continue to live in poverty and in fear of being killed by the army.

This is why people leave to come to countries like Australia, in order to survive.

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