Rafed Sitto knows the Pope’s program for the coming days by heart. He is glued to the tube this weekend with his wife Sandrine and two children. “It would have been a lot nicer if he had visited our country in better times, when we still had our lives there and more Christians lived in Iraq,” says Sandrine.
Since the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the number of Christians in Iraq has declined rapidly. Churches and villages have been wiped out by bomb attacks or destroyed by IS. In 2003 there were about 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, now it is estimated that there are fewer than 300,000. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have immigrated to Europe and the US. Others would like to, but stayed in Lebanon and Jordan, where their situation is often dire.
Mixed feelings
This is also the case for the Chaldean Catholic Sitto family. With mixed feelings they watch the traditional dance with which the Pope is welcomed in such a festive way. “These are our costumes for special occasions,” says Sandrine with tears in her eyes. “If only our country had always been so cheerful.”
The family fled Batnaya in northern Iraq in a hurry when ISIS took the area by force in 2014. Rafed’s family lived in the village for centuries. When ISIS invaded they did not get a chance to take their belongings with them. His car was stolen, their house was looted and razed to the ground.
“We had the choice to repent, to flee or not survive,” Rafed said. “I was baptized, I took my First Communion. I don’t want to repent.”
Via northern Iraq, the Sittos, like thousands of other Christian families, ended up in Beirut in the hope of reaching the west via this route. “What we want is a safe life somewhere where we can say and do what we want, that’s all,” says Rafed.
Economic crisis in Lebanon
Seven long years later, they are still in a poor Christian suburb of Beirut. The mattresses are against the wall of the one room where the four of them live. In the evening they just fit on the floor together. They tried to make a kitchenette in the hallway. The electricity is out for hours every day. Due to the unprecedented economic crisis, there are no opportunities in Lebanon for people like Rafed and Sandrine.
“We have already seen one after the other leave. To Australia, America, Europe. But our papers are waiting. I have no idea why it all takes so long,” says Rafed. He says he knows hundreds of other families who are waiting for permission to settle elsewhere.
Reach Australia
Their biggest dream is to reach Australia. Coincidentally, his mother and brother as well as Sandrine’s entire family were housed in Australia two years ago. Rafed: “In our village we all lived together as a family in a big house. All generations together. Every day my mother calls us crying to ask when we are coming. My brother says that it is a stable life in Australia. That there is education for the children and health care when you are ill. “
Those are exactly the things Rafed worries about every day because he has no income. “We have barely left this room for a year. We are afraid of getting sick. If one of us gets something, we have a huge problem. We will die in front of the hospital. Because we cannot afford it” , he says.
‘Going back not an option’
“The Iraqis here come from the middle class. They had great jobs there, a good life. Now they are lucky to find a job as a cleaner or janitor here,” says Lebanese Nayla Frem Sayegh. Her organization, Berrad el Hay, provides hot meals daily and she has helped three Iraqis find jobs in her kitchen.
“We are also trying to help with medicine and education, but the demand is huge and there is little support,” she says. “The Iraqis are being snowed under by the sheer numbers of Syrian refugees here. They have been forgotten and they are broken. They have lost hope because they have been disappointed so many times.”
On Rafed and Sandrine’s television, the Pope has arrived in a church in Baghdad. “Nice to see, but going back is not an option for us”, Rafed concludes. He is sure it is still not safe in his village. “The people we fled from are still active in the area. Besides, my house and the whole village are in ruins. How could we offer our children a decent future there? There is no place for us in Iraq anymore.”
Still, Rafed thinks it’s good that the Pope is here now. “Before too long there will probably not be a Christian to be found there.”
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