IMAGE: CNS/Oscar Durand
By Oscar Durand
ISTANBUL
(CNS) — Yako Hanna, 36, always keeps an eye on his phone waiting for a call
that would change his life.
“Anytime
it rings, you think it is the U.N., so you have to be careful. Even if you go to
the bathroom, you have to take your mobile with you,” Hanna said,
referring to the call he might receive from the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, which
is handling his resettlement application to Australia, where he has relatives.
Hanna
is one of the thousands of Iraqi Christians that are in Turkey waiting, from a
few months to a few years, for an answer to their resettlement applications to
Western countries. They are waiting for an appointment or a visa, a document
that will allow them to restart their lives in a new country. And not knowing
when that will happen is leading them to live a life in limbo.
Hanna
grew up in a Chaldean Catholic family in the al-Dora district of Baghdad. The
memories from his childhood include summer picnics, soccer games and other
activities organized by his neighborhood church, St. Jacob.
Starting
in 2004, car bombs, killings and attacks on Christians in Iraq become common. In
2007, St. Jacob — the church Hanna had attended for 22 years — was attacked,
marking the beginning of his odyssey. He moved to a safer neighborhood in
Baghdad and, when the situation worsened there as well, he fled to Tel Kaif in
northern Iraq, just north of Mosul. In 2014, the Islamic State group attacked
the town, and Hanna fled to Turkey.
Once
in Turkey, Hanna registered with UNHCR and the Turkish government. Under
Turkish law, only asylum seekers from Europe qualify for refugee status. Iraqis
are eligible to receive what is called an “international protection”
status, which allows them to stay in Turkey as they wait for resettlement to a
third country.
Being
resettled is not easy or quick.
According
to UNHCR, in 2015, there were more than 7,500 people resettled out of Turkey; more
than 6,400 were from countries other than Syria. Turkey hosts more than 3
million refugees; about 400,000 are non-Syrians. Although the exact number of
Iraqi Christians in Turkey is unknown, it is estimated that there are at least
40,000.
For
Hanna, the process to officially become a refugee and seek resettlement
involved paperwork, travel and multiple interviews. His file was finally
completed July 21, two years after he landed in Turkey.
“The
first year was the worst year of my life. My future was unknown. What would I
do for work? What would happen when I face a problem here? So many strange
thoughts. I cried many times. I had to start not from zero but from under zero,”
Hanna said.
He
said he hopes that the next time the phone rings, it is a call with a positive
answer to his case.
“I
think it will be no less than six months. If they told me four months, it would
be a miracle. I cannot guess,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hanna has found a temporary home with the Iraqi Catholic
community in Istanbul. He keeps busy teaching English to refugee children,
mostly from Iraq and Syria, at the Don Bosco Youth Center in Istanbul. Most of
the other instructors are also from Iraq.
Basima
Kamil, 42, also teaches English at the center. She is from Baghdad and has
lived in Istanbul with her husband and four children since December 2012. With
violence and threats toward Christians all around them, they felt they had no
other option but to leave Iraq.
Once
in Istanbul, Kamil and her family followed the resettlement process that is
known to the Iraqi refugee community. Their first interview with UNHCR was in
September 2014, almost two years after they landed in Istanbul.
When
they met with Canadian officials, Kamil felt closer to her dream of finding a
safe home for her family. After that interview in October 2015, Kamil was told
that the next time she would be contacted, it would be for her to move to
Canada.
“And
since then, we are waiting,” Kamil said.
Kamil
worries about her children’s education. They are between 15 and 22 and she
believes that, as years pass by, so do their opportunities.
“I
worry about their studies. I want them to continue studying, but I am afraid
that they won’t,” Kamil said.
Kamil
said she is determined to continue moving ahead, even if her application is
denied.
“I
cannot go back to Iraq. Now there are even fewer Christians. And I have
daughters, it is more difficult for them,” Kamil said.
Hanna
also said he does not contemplate giving up if his resettlement application is
rejected. But in the meantime, he is wasting no time. While not teaching at
the Don Bosco Youth Center, he is taking Turkish lessons and is looking for a
school to learn to become a barber.
“The
more difficult thing is keep waiting and postponing your dreams. Until when?
You don’t know. But day by day, you get used to,” Hanna said.
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