Baghdad Empties as Residents Flee to Safety

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 18, 2006 — -- Iraqi officials insist that the government's security plan shows signs of success, but hundreds of thousands of Iraqis express a different view -- by leaving the region in hordes.

Baghdad's passport office is overrun with people trying to leave the country. On a recent afternoon, a car bomb went off just outside the gates, killing nine people.

Inside an official tried to calm the crowd, saying this happens all the time. The attack was one more reason for resident Kaiss Warash to want to leave Iraq.

"I'm tired of life here," he said.

Visit bus stations in Iraq's capital and it's clear many feel the same as Warash. By some estimates, this is now the largest movement of refugees in the world today, with most of the fleeing people going to neighboring Syria and Jordan.

And the pace of the movement has accelerated. In 2004, 213,000 Iraqis fled the country. Last year that number rose to 801,000.

"There is persecution going on of religious minorities, of professionals … and of course Shia or Sunni," said Lavinia Limón of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. "People are actually told if you don't leave we're going to kill you."

The drain is worst among professionals. An estimated 40 percent of the country's professionals have left, and Baghdad's main hospital is now experiencing a dangerous shortage of trauma surgeons.

Unemployed but Safe

Across Baghdad, in some areas quiet streets and vacant homes are an eerie testament to the exodus.

In Jordan entire neighborhoods of Iraqi refugees have sprung up. In Jordan they can walk the streets safely again, but many can't work legally.

One refugee told us, "I don't have a job here … but there's nothing better than security."

And so many keep leaving, hoping some day it will be safe to come home.