The Assyrian Democratic Organization
By Cassie Maher
Australia – starnewsgroup — Assyrian-Chaldean migrants of Hume say they are living under a cloud of uncertainty and dread as their relatives in Iraq are raped, murdered and kidnapped by Islamic extremists.
Edwina Dinkha, an Assyrian community leader, said the conflict was hitting close to home for local residents who were suffering from domestic violence, health problems and depression as they struggled to send large chunks of their pay overseas.
“There’s domestic violence over financial problems because the husband and wife both want to support their respective families for rent, food and visas,” Ms Dinkha said. “People are so stressed they have high blood pressure and heart attacks.”
Ms Dinkha also said tertiary-qualified migrants were taking low-paying positions such as waiters and cleaners in a desperate bid to send money overseas as quickly as possible.
“Some families take their children out of school in Year 10 just to find a job to support the family.” She said although newly arrived migrants might have escaped with their lives, they were barely living.
Star met six members of the Assyrian-Chaldean Women’s Association last week who relayed horror stories from their war-torn homeland where Assyrian-Chaldean people, who are Christians and the only indigenous population of Iraq, are being persecuted because of their faith. “I knew a widow mother with one son and they kidnapped him for three weeks and asked her for around $40,000 American,” Ms Dinkha said.
“Her relatives collected the money and sent it to her to pay the extremists. They (extremists) said they would return him in three days and on the third day she found a plastic bag at her front door and saw her son chopped up, cut to pieces in there. That’s one example of what’s happening.” Hadila Yousif from Campbellfield said her relatives, who now live in Syria after fleeing Iraq, were constantly asking her what was going to happen next.
She said even those forced out to Syria or Turkey were still being forced to pay the “jizya”, an Islamic protection tax, to stay alive. “We keep telling them, ‘just wait’. We’ve lost our future here because we keep thinking about them, sending money, supporting them, and we keep asking ourselves, ‘until when’?”
Roxburgh Park resident Shamiran Yakob said residents held funerals almost every Sunday for dead relatives and friends overseas. “My kids see me crying and ask me, ‘why you crying’? It’s not good for them. We come to Australia to be happy but we didn’t find happiness here because we are still thinking of our family overseas.”
Ms Dinkha said the most frustrating part of the situation was the lack of media coverage surrounding the plight of Assyrians in Iraq and not enough help from government agencies such as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Ms Dinkha said she hoped Star’s story would increase community awareness and help to apply pressure on government agencies to increase the number of visas available to Assyrians. “They’re being killed everyday and no-one is talking about it. We just want to live in peace.”
