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“A minimized Iraq” arises in the heart of Amman
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Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [2/1/2007]
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Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis: Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, rich and poor found a refuge in Jordan, Iraq's western neighbor, and formed a "mini Iraq" in the capital Amman; some consider this alarming.
There are no accurate statistics on the number of Iraqis who fled to Jordan after the war waged by the United States against Iraq in 2003.
While The High Commission for Refugees in the United Nations talks about "more than 700 thousand" Iraqi refugees, independent sources estimate the number at more than one million.
The Jordanian authorities assert that the number does not exceed a half million Iraqis.
The majority of Iraqis in Jordan bought houses in the Jordanian capital; this doubled the number of its population, which was not more than 1 million in 2003 and led to a rise in real estate prices which has tripled, forcing many Jordanians of the middle class, to move to the suburbs to find lower-priced homes.
An analyst at the Jordanian Center for Economic Studies said that the Iraqis “created a society within our own and now we have (a mini Iraq) in Amman and this is a cause for concern in the long term”.
Iraqis in Amman mainly inhabited the neighborhoods of Arrabiah and Khulda which the taxi driver described in jest that they were renamed as Al-Karadah and Jadiriyah (which are residential neighborhoods in Baghdad).
In these previously quiet neighborhoods, there are now restaurants that offer famous Iraqi dishes such as the fish “Al-Masgoof” and the so-called “Kabab Al-Fallujah”, in addition to nightclubs where Iraqi dancers and singers perform.
The first and the largest shopping center in Amman, “Mecca Mall”, which is frequently visited by Iraqis is now renamed as “Baghdad Mall”.
Tariq Hassouna, (55 years old) of Iraqi nationality, says: "We come here for shopping and meeting our Iraqi friends whom we have lost contact with”.
Many Iraqi artists established their art workshops in Jordan and participated in exhibitions run by Iraqis like Sirwan Arif (39 years old), who was a lecturer at the Institute of the Arts at the University of Baghdad.
He said “violence in Iraq left no place for art there”.
Many Jordanians who thought at first that the arrival of wealthy Iraqis will flourish the economy of the country are now complaining from the neighbors who have increased the inflation and become a burden on Jordan.
An economic analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, said that "Iraqis live in neighborhoods of their own and they did little to invest in the Kingdom except for the purchase of houses and some projects such as restaurants where the majority of the staff are Iraqis”. He added: “They have contributed to inflation and rarely mingled with the Jordanians and this is unhealthy”.
Abdul Rahman, who is a government employee, agreed with the analyst and said: “I had the intention to buy a small apartment in 2005, but by the time I was able to obtain a bank loan, the apartment owner told me that its price rose from 35 thousand dollars to 115 thousand dollars”.
A Jordanian unionist also complained that Iraqis are pushing Jordanians slowly outside the labor market. He said that “thousands of Iraqis are working illegally and accept lower wages than the Jordanians who are left without work”.
Izzat, who is a mechanic, said that his employer told him that he will fire him and replace him by an Iraqi when asked for a day off. But Jordanian officials reduced the importance of such complaints.
The official spokesman for the Jordanian government, Nassir Jodah, said that “the presence of Iraqis in Jordan, of course, forms a burden on national resources; although, I hate to use this term, but they are welcome here”.
Jodah denied that Jordan closed its borders to Iraqis coming to Jordan, but said: "We need to verify and check cautiously and well, taking into account the security concerns that we all face in the world these days”.
Jodah said that “Iraqis living in Jordan are always guests on us”.
He added that most of those Iraqis “do not look at themselves as refugees and Jordan is aware of the difficult situation in Iraq and Jordan's doors were always open to Iraqis”.
However, a Jordanian court sentenced an Iraqi woman to be hanged to death last year for involvement in the attacks on hotels in Amman, which killed 60 people and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia announced its responsibility for them.
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