Iraqi family finds new home

After two years, an Iraqi family who had to flee their home because of death threats, will soon be reunited in San Diego, CA.
Their saga began near the city of Al Musel, the ancestral home for John, his wife, Nasra, and their Roman Catholic family (I am not using their last names because they fear retaliation against family and friends still in Iraq). Prior to and following the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, John was a water tank truck driver for a small company that supplied water to customers around the city, he explained with the help of an interpreter supplied y the International Friendship House, West Market Street, York, that has been hosting the family since Tuesday.
After the invasion, in July 2004, John’s employer had subcontracted with the U.S. military to deliver water to an “American military post,” John said. “I not only provided support with water transportation, I also did some translation – I studied English for nine years. I wanted to help them.”
It did not take long for “Islamic extremists who had supported Saddam, to say they were going to kill me and my family,” he said. “The terrorists arrested my oldest son, Lever, and broke his elbow. They warned him that our family had only one month to move or we would be killed.”
Knowing that it was not an idle threat, John and his family that consists of another son, Nasser, now 18, Lever’s wife, Milad, 16, and daughters Lara, 15, Liza, 11 and Lidia, 10, quickly sold their home and most of their possessions at extremely low prices in order to make the money they needed to arrange fake passports and transportation out of Iraq. In September 2004, they flew to Istanbul, Turkey.
In Turkey, they were taken to the border and each given inflated vehicle inner-tubes to use to cross to small rivers into Greece. Once in Greece, they made their way to Athens, where they contacted an organization that was founded to help Iraqi refugees.
Without valid passports or other documents, the family could not seek legal employment, John explained. At a bus station, the girls sold boxes facial tissues and the boys washed vehicle windshields hoping to make some money, but Greek police would chase them away. Finally, John and Nasra contacted their brothers in Sydney, Australia, asking for and receiving money to leave Greece.
In September 2005, the family had purchased airline tickets to the U.S. Lever and his wife had gone through customs without a hitch, but Athens airport security, stopped the rest of the family, and detained them because they said their passports were not valid. Lever and Milad boarded the plane, leaving the rest of the family behind, John said.
It took about one more year, before John and his family, received legitimate Greek passports that would allow them to leave the country. Unfortunately, the passports would only allow them to fly to Tijuana, Mexico.
“We took a taxi to the border crossing,” John said. “Then we turned ourselves into the border patrol seeking political asylum.”
LeAnn Strine, secretary of the Golden Vision Foundation, which operates the International Friendship House, said the family was taken then put into the Immigration and Naturalization Service system that brought them to a facility in Berks County, near Philadelphia. Despite the fact that it was nearly a foregone conclusion that John’s family met all the criteria necessary for political asylum, regulations required a three-step hearing process – notice to appear, a hearing to present the facts and a disposition hearing where the request is granted or denied.
John and his family, for five months, were separated -- men in one facility, women in another, and children from five to 17 in another facility, she said. Once the asylum was granted, Villanova School of Law student volunteers working with refugees contacted Golden Vision to alert them of John and his family, who are expecting to leave Pennsylvania sometime early this week.
Shawn Burke, an attorney who works with Villanova and the refugee effort, said there are a few identification document issues that remain to be settled. He expects that as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, the family will be on a plane to San Diego, CA.
“We are in America and we are feeling safe and peaceful here,” John said. “In America there are human values and democracy. We are not worried about or future. We are happy and secure.”
The family is going to share one house in San Deigo, until John can find work. The children, including Nasser, who has yet to formally complete high school, have some formal education to catch up on, Strine said. All of the children speak English fairly well, so they should not have great difficulty in adapting.
John said that his son, Lever, works in a grocery store owned by an uncle. John said he is willing to work anywhere, but hopes to take to the road in a “big truck” again.