Smugglers dupe desperate Iraqis

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — In the depths of despair, Suzan doused herself and her 14-year-old daughter with gasoline and prepared to set them both on fire.

The Iraqi refugee’s dream of reaching Europe was dead. Suzan, a hairstylist, had fled her homeland months earlier under threat from Islamic extremists and paid a smuggler $18,000 to sneak her and her daughter Aya from Turkey to Greece. But when they reached Edirne, near the Greek border, the smuggler vanished.

Suzan returned to Istanbul, where she feared the only fate for her and Aya was prostitution.

“My dream was like a sand castle taken down by a big wave,” Suzan said. “I did not want to see the day when me or my daughter are forced to leave the right path.”

Only Aya’s last-minute pleas stopped her from lighting them both ablaze. “Please, mama, I kiss your feet, don’t do it,” Aya begged.

“She was in my arms, soaked with gasoline and shivering from fright ... I was so very desperate, and there was no way out,” Suzan recounted, crying at the memory and holding Aya.

She spoke to The Associated Press on condition her full name not be used because she fears deportation by Turkish authorities.

The desperation of Iraqi refugees appears to be causing an increase in illegal migration into Europe — and in the activities of smugglers who exploit these refugees.

Up to 2.5 million Iraqis have fled their country over the past five years. A tiny portion of these Iraqi refugees can resettle legally in Europe or the United States. Sweden has given shelter to about 40,000 Iraqis since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq — far more than any other Western country.

And after a slow start, U.S. authorities said last month that they had taken in around 5,800 Iraqis so far this fiscal year.

But others have little hope. Even those who have gained legal status in Syria, Jordan or Turkey are usually not allowed to work, meaning they must find jobs under the table or live off rapidly dwindling funds brought from Iraq.

Some, like Suzan, lose hope in the complicated process of applying for refugee status and resettlement abroad.

Suzan and Aya now rent a cinderblock apartment with broken windows and cracked walls for $200 a month, and she washes dishes for about $8 a day in Istanbul.