Iraq: Hundreds forced to scavenge for food in garbage bins

[Barrett808]

Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Barira Mihran, a 36-year-old mother of three, scavenges every day in other people's dustbins in Baghdad for leftovers on which to feed her children.

Widowed and displaced by sectarian violence, the unemployed mother said she had no other way of providing for her children.

"In the beginning it was very difficult. I never imagined that one day I was going to be forced by destiny to feed my children from the remains of other people's food," Barira said. "We always had good food on our table when my husband was alive but since he was killed in August 2005, my life has gone from bad to worse."

"My children are under age and so cannot work or beg in the streets," she said.

"Sometimes you have to fight for a dustbin. Many women know which houses have good leftovers and so they wait for hours near the houses until the leftovers are thrown in the bins outside. Then you can see at least 10 people, women and children, running to get it, and I will be in the middle of the crowd, for sure," Barira added.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d4a014a60dc53534a052c06a75a4bf62.htm

[BobRossi]

1. Success!

Iraq becoming more like U.S. everyday. Good job shrub!

[saigon68]

9. FREEDOM AND HUNGER ARE ON THE MARCH

Thanks a lot Gangster Cheney---- you war criminal draft dodger

[jojo54]

2. And this is bringing democracy to these people!

:sarcasm:

[aquart]

3. Burn in hell, BushCo.

But before that? Boils, pustules, piles, hives, post-nasal drip, panic attacks, crotch rot, athlete's foot, acid reflux, and fibromyalgia.

May the evil you do come back to you, from every place it has gone, from every one it has harmed.

[Amonester]

4. K&R K&R K&R K&R K&R K&R (This atrocity must be KNOWN).

Please, oh please, DU: SEND THIS TO nancy & reid.

[Theres-a]

5. K&R

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. "Let Freedom Reign!"

"Much better off without Saddam"

[onehandle]

7. Why don't they just get jobs at the Baghdad Wal-Mart?

Iraq is now a Middle-America-ish paradise.

Enjoy!

[Magleetis]

8. Funny how

The MSM is ignoring the humanitarian crises * has created in Iraq. Then again its not funny is it.

[kineneb]

10. no Paris Hilton, hence no interest

MSM- All Paris, All the Time.

(like my friend discribed the History Channel: "All Hitler, All the Time")

move along, nothing here to see, move along...

[superconnected]

11. How horribly sad.

We hear about the dead but we rarely hear about how bad it is for the living.

After what we've done to destroy and rape that country we should at least be able to give them food stamps.

[Amonester]

12. kick.

now that's in GD

[w8liftinglady]

13. my latest ltte was about this(refugees)-please keep speaking out

http://thedailylight.com/articles/2007/10/16/dailylight/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter2.txt
To the Editor,

As is typical for the United States, a crisis of epic proportions is forming under our watch, yet I bet few of the readers of this fine paper are aware of it. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimates 4.2 million refugees have left Iraq, with an additional 2 million “internally displaced.” Millions of these refugees are children — 350,000 school-age children fled to Syria; 30,000 are currently enrolled in school; 200,000 school-age children are in Jordan; 20,000 are enrolled in school. Almost half of the families arrived in their host countries with no breadwinner and no job. Even among male refugees,there is a 55 percent unemployment rate. Children are reduced to begging and selling trinkets in the streets. In Syria alone, 50,000 women have been drawn into prostitution to feed their children.

Most refugees have no official identification, which has led to a huge trade in forged documents. These documents cost the equivalent of U.S. $100,000, and without them, even professionals can’t find work. With the influx of millions of people, there has been a great deal of stress placed on the infrastructure of both Syria and Jordan ... so much so that there is no safe drinking water available.

Inside Iraq, the situation is equally dismal. According to the Red Crescent Society, the number of internally displaced (aka homeless) has gone from 499,000 to 2.1 million people ... again mostly children.

The United States has granted asylum for 202 Iraqis since 2003, in sharp contrast to the 180,000 visas granted for Vietnamese refugees during that era.

How will future generations judge America?

[Amonester]

14. kick for the early evening duers.

i will kick it again
and again