Bleak Christmas for Iraqi refugees stuck in Jordan

For thousands of Iraqi Christians, memories of festive holidays back home clash with their tenuous lives in Jordan

‘There we had plenty to eat and drink, while here, we are on our own’, one said

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Saad Polus Qiryaqoz, left, prepares Christmas treats with his wife at their new home in Jordan's capital, Amman. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:00pm, 20 Dec 2020Updated: 5:00pm, 20 Dec 2020

Saad Polus Qiryaqoz bitterly remembers the festive Christmas season in his Iraqi hometown of Bartella before he was forced to flee to neighbouring Jordan when jihadists took it over.

Up until 2014, when Islamic State swept the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq, Christians like Qiryaqoz had pulled out the stops over Christmas with celebrations lasting a whole month, he said.

“Our life was beautiful and we were happy before the jihadists seized our town and destroyed everything,” said the engineer and father of three in his modest flat in the eastern Amman suburb of Marka.

“Our life has now changed forever,” he added, surrounded by his wife, his son and one of his daughters, a small Christmas tree standing in a corner of the living room.

“Back home, Christmas lasted a whole month and there would be a 15-metre [50-foot] high Christmas tree in the square near the church. We would gather there with family and friends to pray and sing hymns,” he said. “Now all that is over.”

More than 66,000 Iraqis live in Jordan, the United Nations says. They were forced out in waves by conflict, starting with the 1990 first Gulf War, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the 2014 emergence of Isis.

Of those, 12,000 to 18,000 are Christians, according to Wael Suleiman, who heads the Catholic charity Caritas in Jordan.