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Iraq calls on US to review 'wrong' travel ban
By Salam Faraj
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 31, 2017


Trump's travel ban blocks Iraqi family's move to US
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Jan 31, 2017 - If they had known what would happen, Fuad Sharif and his wife would have waited before quitting their jobs, selling their belongings and leaving Iraq with their children for the US.

Sharif and his family are among a growing number of people whose lives have been upended by travel restrictions ordered by President Donald Trump on seven Muslim-majority countries with the stated aim of keeping America safe from "radical Islamic terrorists".

"After two years of waiting... they confirmed that I do not represent any danger to the United States and the American people," Sharif, 51, told AFP.

"On this basis, they gave me an immigration visa," said Sharif, who worked with RTI International, a US-based non-profit organisation contracted by the American government to work on issues including local governance in Iraq.

Sharif said he was hoping for a "new life" in the US, but now he and his family are back in Iraq.

Sitting with his wife and children at a house in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region among a number of bags they had planned to take with them to America, Sharif's disappointment is clear.

"I helped the American government and worked with them in a time of crises and put my life in danger," he said, noting that some of his colleagues were killed.

"Trump and his new administration let us down," Sharif said.

The family travelled to Cairo and they were preparing to fly to the US from there, but were barred from boarding their flight.

- No jobs, no school -

An employee at the airport gave the family their boarding cards, but later returned and said: "Just a minute, just a minute -- you are prohibited from travelling to the United States."

When asked why, the employee cited an "email from the American embassy in Baghdad warning us that you are prevented from travelling", Sharif said.

The next flight back to Arbil was not until the following morning, meaning that he, his wife and their three sons had to spend some 25 hours at Cairo airport before they could leave.

Now they are back in Iraq, staying at his brother-in-law's empty home and living off savings.

Before leaving, "I had to sell my belongings and resign from my work and my wife resigned from her work and my children left school," Sharif said.

"I am relying on the money I have to live... now I am without work and my wife is without work and the children are without schools."

Trump's travel restrictions -- coming as Iraq battles the Islamic State jihadist group which the president has repeatedly cast as a threat to America -- have sparked a growing backlash in Baghdad.

Iraq has called on the US to review the move, terming it a "wrong decision", and parliament voted Monday to back reciprocal restrictions on Americans if Washington does not change course.

But for now, Sharif and others are left in limbo.

"I sent a request to the American embassy in Baghdad" asking "what they advise me" to do, he said.

"Until now, I have not received a response."

Baghdad called Monday for the United States to review its "wrong decision" to prevent Iraqis from entering the country as parliament backed reciprocal restrictions if Washington does not change course.

The responses from Baghdad are part of a growing backlash against President Donald Trump's executive order barring citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen from entering the US for at least 90 days, a decision he billed as an effort to make America safe from "radical Islamic terrorists".

The travel restrictions, which come on the heels of repeated assertions by Trump that the US should have stolen Iraq's oil before leaving in 2011, risk alienating the citizens and government of a country fighting against militants the president has cast as a major threat to America.

"We reject... the decision to prevent the reception of Iraqis in the United States of America, and call for its review," Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told US ambassador Douglas Silliman, according to a statement on his website.

But "we (also) confirm our commitment to establishing better relations between Baghdad and Washington," Jaafari said.

The foreign ministry also issued a statement calling on the US to "review this wrong decision".

"It is very unfortunate that this decision was issued towards an allied state linked by strategic partnership with the United States," it said.

The ministry noted the US move "coincides with victories achieved by (Iraq's) brave fighters and with the support of the international coalition against the Daesh terrorist gangs in Mosul," referring to the battle to retake the city from the Islamic State jihadist group.

Parliament, meanwhile, urged the government to take similar measures against Americans if Washington does not reconsider its position.

Lawmakers voted for "a policy of reciprocity with the American decision in the event that the American side does not withdraw its decision," according to text read out before the vote.

It also called for the US Congress to pressure the Trump administration to reconsider its decision, and for the UN, Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to oppose the measure.

- Security ramifications -

And it said that if the US does not roll back the move, this "will push Iraq to take policies and decisions commensurate with the preservation of its interests."

"We are against this stance from the new administration," lawmaker Sadiq al-Laban told AFP.

"We hope that the American administration will rethink... this decision," he added.

Trump's decision led to the detention of incoming refugees at US airports, sparking protests, legal challenges and widespread condemnation from rights groups.

The parliamentary vote came a day after its foreign affairs committee made a similar call for Iraq to respond in kind to the US measure.

Hassan Shwairid, the deputy head of the committee, said the committee's call did not apply to the thousands of American military personnel in the country as part of the US-led coalition against IS.

The Pentagon on Thursday pledged to lobby for US entry of Iraqis who have worked for the US military, including fighters and translators.

And US senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham said Trump's ban could impact military cooperation and security in other ways.

"This executive order bans Iraqi pilots from coming to military bases in Arizona," where they have received training, they said in a joint statement.

"Ultimately, we fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism."

Iraq's former ambassador to Washington Lukman Faily told AFP the ban was a "betrayal" as Iraq is a partner with the United States, fighting against militants.

The Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful paramilitary umbrella organisation that includes Iran-backed Shiite militias that fought against American forces in past years, appealed Sunday for US citizens to be banned from the country.

Units from the Hashed and American troops are both deployed in the Mosul area as part of the operation to retake the city from IS, and heightened anti-US sentiment among militiamen could increase the danger to Washington's forces.

Trump's travel restrictions also drew condemnation from populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, America's bete noir for much of its 2003-2011 war in Iraq.

"Get your nationals out before removing expatriates," said Sadr, scion of a powerful clerical family who rose to widespread fame due to his condemnation of and violent resistance to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.


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Previous Report
IRAQ WARS
Iraq calls on US to review 'wrong' travel ban
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 30, 2017
Baghdad called Monday for the United States to review its "wrong decision" to prevent Iraqis from entering the country as parliament backed reciprocal restrictions if Washington does not change course. The responses from Baghdad are part of a growing backlash against President Donald Trump's executive order barring citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen from entering ... read more


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