Ayad Imad, 22, a Catholic resident of the middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna and sales manager for an international cigarette firm, is one of them. This Christmas will be his last in Iraq, he said.
His parents have already sold their house and cars. As soon as his father finishes a round of medical treatment the family will travel to Turkey, where they plan to register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee’s asylum program, with the hope of being resettled in North America, Europe or Australia.
They might have to wait a long time before they reach one of those destinations. But Imad doesn’t care. He has spent years lobbying his family to emigrate from Iraq, but his father had not wanted to leave his elderly parents behind.
“At first my father insisted we stay,” he said. “But my father’s had a job, a career. My grandfather is an old man, he’s lived. Now it’s my turn to live my life, and there’s no future here.”
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