WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraqis who assist the United States in Iraq risk losing everything -- their lives, homes, families, even their country, fleeing as refugees to unknown futures.
But in many cases, aid workers complain, there is an unwillingness to repay the debt on the part of the US companies, army or agencies that use these individuals as translators or advisors.
Five years ago on Monday, just months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, a former colonel in Saddam Hussein's military machine offered his services to the United States army as a translator.
He served four years with US soldiers in Baghdad and was awarded the medal of excellence for his work.
On September 2 last year, he fled Iraq for Syria, branded by his fellow Iraqis as an enemy collaborator for his work with the Americans.
He arrived in the United States four months ago and works as a factory inspector, earning 6.65 dollars an hour -- a paltry wage by any standards.
"I have more than 15 years' experience as a technician-officer in the Iraqi Air Force. I have a bachelor's degree in translation. I'd like to work in the aviation field," he told AFP in a conversation punctuated with stifling emotion as he remembered the family he left behind in Iraq.
"I'm between two fires. I would like to see my wife and daughter and son but I cannot go back. The terrorists, you know ... Sometimes, I feel aimless," said the former officer, his voice breaking and huge tears rolling down his cheeks.
He asked AFP to mask his true identity, fearing for his family.
We have called him Ali, and he is one of dozens of "lucky" Iraqis attending a workshop in Washington to try to help highly educated Iraqi refugees to land jobs in their field.
But he has paid dearly for his luck, leaving a comfortable life, his homeland and his entire family behind.
Yasser Yakoub -- not his real name -- who worked for USAID in Basra after the 2003 invasion, was also at the workshop.
"I came to the United States after being intimidated and two of my colleagues were assassinated ... I still have the image in my head," he told reporters.
"I came here after spending 18 months and all my savings in Jordan. I am now surviving," working as a commission-only salesman in Illinois, he said.
Eman al-Timimi, who used to be political adviser at the Basra office of the US embassy, said she was "here as a refugee and looking for a job."
She was "willing to travel" anywhere.
All of the more than 40 Iraqis at the workshop had cooperated with US contractors, government agencies or the military.
But none of the companies or government agencies have returned the favor, according to the refugees and the organizers of the workshop.
"Lots of organizations are getting contracts in the Middle East and making millions, but none so far has offered us a job in the US as a backstop," said Yasser.
Kirk Johnson, a former USAID worker in Iraq who founded The List Project, a non-profit organization which aims to help Iraqis settle in the United States, in 2007, questioned why US contractors haven't stepped in to help Iraqis who helped them.
"There are NGOs and contractors that are still in Iraq on contracts funded by our government," Johnson said.
"You would think with these fairly sizeable contracts that they were awarded on the backs of Iraqis, that they might be able to hire some, now that they're refugees."
Individuals who have helped to get Iraqi refugees into the United States, such as Tony Marquardt, a former US National Guard staff sergeant, lamented the apparent unwillingness of US companies and agencies to repay a debt to Iraqis.
Marquardt wrote letters on Ali's behalf, met him at the airport, helped him through the social security and job-hunt mazes.
"It was an ordeal. We couldn't get anyone to step in and say, 'We'll help'," Marquardt told AFP.
"These Iraqis put their lives on the line to help the Americans and the coalition. You would think they would now open a few doors, and quickly, to accommodate them," he said.
None of the refugees at Monday's workshop can return to Iraq because of the death sentence hanging over the heads of those branded enemy collaborators.
So they work in "survival" jobs -- as janitors, cashiers, dishwashers -- and dream of bringing relatives over to join them or of building a better life for those who stayed in Iraq.
"I left my niece in Iraq. I have to work here so that she can have the same chance as the kids who play here, outside. She deserves it," said Eman.
An estimated two million people have fled Iraq since 2003, seeking refuge in other Middle East countries, mainly Syria, Jordan and Iran.
The United States expects to admit 12,000 Iraqi refugees in the 12 months ending September, an official said last week, calling the goal "a tall order."
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