Iraqi risks all for a chance to flee fear

[dogday]

Malmo, Sweden — WHEN we finally reached the Swedish border, the officer at the checkpoint climbed onto our bus and headed toward me, my wife and my daughter all the way in the back.

Our complexions were obviously Middle Eastern, suspicious. My heart jittered. I reminded myself that we had legal passports with legal visas from a European country. But my fears didn't subside. I'd sunk everything I owned into getting me and my family out of Iraq, and I was terrified we'd be sent back.

It was nighttime. The policeman began searching our faces with a flashlight. When he reached me, he stopped.

"Are you alone?" he asked, first in Swedish, then in English.

"No," I answered. "We are a group."

He continued to stare at us. I thought to myself, "That's it, we are finished."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fg-exile6mar06,0,7027288.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[magellan]

1. An amazing story

...and just one of thousands, I've no doubt.

But then you have to think of all the Iraqis who could never afford the extortionate sums Aziz paid to have his family smuggled out of Iraq. Those Iraqis are living as refugees within their own country or neighboring countries and will probably never have the chance Aziz did to regain something of a normal life for themselves and their families.