Iraqi Refugees Leave Lebanon Hoping for Better Life in U.S.

Laith Kasshana left Baghdad, Iraq, early in 2007, when his 2-year-old daughter Media was an infant. In Baghdad, Kasshana's life was threatened and his brother was shot.

"I felt so afraid," he told Catholic News Service. "Even today, when I talk about Iraq, I feel full of anxiety."

But Kasshana, his wife and his two children -- 10-month-old Mathew was born in Lebanon -- left Sept. 7 for resettlement in San Diego.

"I just want to start from zero again so that I can give my children a better future," said 34-year-old Kasshana, a Chaldean Catholic.

"In the time of Saddam Hussein, we felt secure," he said. "People were afraid of Saddam, so there was respect for all religions. The slogan of Iraqi law then was 'religion is for God; the country is for everyone.'"

All through the family's troubles, Kasshana's 25-year-old wife, Ban, never lost faith that God would do something for her family.

"He is my only salvation," she said, "the only one I can depend on. God is my way out. He will light the way."

In Baghdad, Kasshana owned a store that sold cell phones and other electronics. In Lebanon, he most recently worked 14-hour days for a janitorial company, earning $380 a month -- a good salary, considering most refugees earn $200 a month, if they can find work. But Kasshana had to give up the job when he was assigned to a site far from his home. Without legal residency, he feared being put in jail if he was caught in transit.

When he gets to San Diego, he said, "I want to ... learn the language and to work. I'm willing to do any kind of job."

For a family of three, their Beirut apartment was spacious and structurally well-maintained compared to the living conditions of most other Iraqi refugees. Previously there were 11 family members -- eight of whom were adults -- crammed into the dwelling, but those families were resettled in the U.S.

A neighbor identified only as Thaker planned to move in to the apartment with his wife, newborn son and several extended family members.

Thaker and his brother, victims of religious persecution, fled Mosul, Iraq, in April. In Mosul they worked as cooks at a police academy in which recruits were trained by Americans. As Thaker and his brother were driving to work one day, assailants ordered them out of their car and beat them with rifles.

"They told us, 'You work for the Americans; you are like dogs. You are traitors,'" Thaker recounted.

As head cook for the police academy, Thaker was once awarded employee of the month and was nominated to become manager of the academy's 65 employees. He earned $50 a day for his job, which also included painting vehicles for the Americans. Now he earns $200 a month as a supermarket stocker, working 16 hours a day, six days a week.

Thaker's brother also worked as a cook for the academy and served as an interpreter for the Americans. After the brothers were threatened, they tried to go to work secretly, but they received a written threat, which Thaker has kept and has shown to the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

The attackers even knew that Thaker's brother had wanted to become a priest, although he had left the seminary years before to help provide for his siblings after their father's death.