As tough as things can be for Iraqis in Jordan, they are worse for those still in Iraq. We were intellectual, highly cultured. But now we have lost it. The ruinous war with Iran in the 1980s began the slide, but Iraq, prosperous by regional standards, was still able to feed itself and treat its sick. Regardless of their political views, most Iraqis see Jordan as a way station, a purgatory to be endured before they can return home or make their way to a new life in the West.
Applications have risen in recent years, the agency reports.
The wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly, though. Rejected asylum seekers are given three appeals. Jaber, the defector who lives in a cave, has applied for asylum, but he has not heard yet. I didn't know it would be so difficult. He says a friend of his, a former Iraqi Army captain, walked for 15 days through Syria to Turkey and on to Greece.