Wars, immigration and the search for a safe place are a renewed scenario that pursues Iraqis, whether they are inside or outside their country. Today, after the Russian war on Ukraine, there is great suffering for students studying and residing in Ukrainian cities.
Some of them returned to Iraq with difficulty, and some went to the European continent, and the rest were under the fire of war and the food and medicine crisis.
Al Jazeera Net communicated with a number of Iraqis there to review this suffering.
Iyad seeks to return to Ukraine to save his wife and child from the danger of war (Al Jazeera Net)
nuclear radiation
Student at the Faculty of Medicine Hisham Iyad, who is in his country 10 days before the start of the war to complete his passport procedures, tells Al Jazeera Net that he is seeking to return to Ukraine to save his wife and child from the death that hovers around them, especially after the fighting extended to the city of Zaporozhye (south of the capital) in which they reside.
Fears increased in Zaporozhye last Friday after Kyiv announced that Russian fire had targeted the Zaporozhye nuclear plant, which resulted in a fire in a training building, which raised a state of anxiety and fears of a nuclear disaster.
Iyad - who was speaking with great concern - expressed his fear that he would harm his wife and child if the nuclear reactor exploded.
A food store in Kyiv closed its doors after stocks run out (Al Jazeera Net)
return costs
This war led to a significant increase in the prices of food, medical and motor fuels, in addition to the closure of many roads with military vehicles and the closure of banks in Ukraine, which negatively affected the population, which prompted the Iraqi youth, Mustafa Hussein al-Issawi, to return to his country.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Issawi recounted the details of his trip from Ukraine to Iraq, saying that he traveled from Kyiv by taxi towards the Lviv city airport (468 km from the capital) for $400.
He added that he paid $1,250 for a flight ticket from Lviv Airport to Dubai Airport and then to Baghdad Airport.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Al-Sahhaf, had revealed earlier that the embassy in Kiev allocated a number to the Iraqis there for emergency cases, noting that the number of members of the community is more than 5500 people, most of whom are university students.
Since the beginning of the war, 223 Iraqis have been evacuated from Ukraine, noting that "these entered Poland, according to an official census provided to us by the Polish authorities, and through the coordination of the Iraqi embassy in Warsaw."
Ukraine is one of the countries that Iraqis prefer to study after Lebanon, Iran and Egypt, and their number there reaches 450 students distributed in 37 universities, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs figures.
inner suffering
Regarding the situation in Ukraine, Al-Hassan Al-Rubaie, who resides in Kyiv, explains that the food shops allow the entry of every 4 people, which caused many hours to wait until the person can buy his basic needs, adding that most of the food stores are almost depleted due to the lack of supply of basic goods in light of The ongoing war.
Al-Rubaie said - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that the Ukrainian authorities provided free internet and phone calls, but water and electricity were cut off from time to time.
Refaat considered that most Iraqis fleeing the war in Ukraine do not want to return to the country, but rather go to Europe (Al-Jazeera Net)
We will not go back to Iraq
In the midst of the rush to emigrate from Ukraine towards the European neighboring countries, the Iraqis do not like to return to their country, but rather go to the European continent, according to the young Kurdish resident Tilko.
He added to Al Jazeera Net that most of the Iraqis residing there, who prefer not to return to Iraq, are married to Ukrainian women.
Rifaat explains that Europe began granting 3-year residency to any Iraqi who was residing in Ukraine, which the Iraqi community preferred instead of returning to their home country.
This, Rifaat arrived in Poland early this week after crossing the border from Ukraine.
Barwari estimates the number of people at the Ukrainian-Polish border at nearly one million people (Al Jazeera Net)
For his part, the young Ahmed Berwari agreed with Dr. Refaat not to think of returning to Iraq after his arrival in Poland.
Barwari - for Al Jazeera Net - recounts his 18-hour journey towards Europe, as he moved from his place of residence in Odessa, 450 km south of Kyiv, via train to the city of Lviv, and then moved by taxi towards the borders of Ukraine.
The young expatriate estimated the number of people at the Ukrainian-Polish border at nearly one million people, which led to his stay there for 3 days until he was able to cross.
Regarding the mechanism for Iraqis to enter Poland, Berwari said that those who have permanent residence or were married to Ukrainian women have the right to enter only.