Donate Now Matthew Hay Brown, for the Pulitzer Center
Damascus, Syria
Adnan Al Sharify sees a few obstacles holding up the return of Iraqi refugees to their home country.
Sharify, an official at the Iraqi Embassy here in Syria, helped to organize government-sponsored bus trips at the end of last year that he says carried 420 Iraqi families back to Baghdad. The Syrian government estimates the Iraqi populaton here at 1.5 million.
More free rides home are planned, Sharify told me this morning. But finding takes is likely to remain a challenge.
Sharify blames the U.S. military, for making it difficult to enter Iraq, causing waits at the border that he says can last days. Also the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, for raising the hopes of Iraqis seeking resettlement to North America or Europe. And the media, for reporting every violent incident that occurs in Iraq.
"About 90 percent of Iraq is safe now," Sharify said. "The main reason Iraqis came to Syria was the security situation. Now the Iraqi government has solved that problem."