With each new upheaval in Iraq, more minorities flee

The Christian community has dwindled dramatically from more than 2 million in the 1990’s to less than a quarter-million today, says Loay Mikhael, the head of the foreign relations committee for the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council.

“Eighty percent are trying to get out,” he says, adding that they’re applying for tourist visas in Western embassies in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon and then claiming asylum as soon as they arrive.

ISIS militants have ruthlessly targeted Iraq’s religious minorities. But the historic exodus stems from more than that, says Gerard Russell, author of Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East.

“It’s not even about the violence and the fear,” he says, adding, “most of all, it’s the feeling of not being wanted. It’s the feeling that it’s no longer home.”