Coming to America: One translator's harrowing journey

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Sad Story...this is just one out of the thousands that are unheard of. We play games and enjoy our time with FA, but I think its also important to feel for those that are struggling daily. Its a part of our humanity.

 

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An Iraqi translator who worked extensively with the US military spent almost seven years trying to get his family to America. But with days to go before their departure, President Trump signed a travel ban that put the family's future in question.

 

Friday, 27 January

 

Baghdad, Iraq

 

It took seven years for Munther Alaskry to secure visas for his family. Now, they were only four days away from a new life in Houston, Texas, where friends and an apartment were waiting.

But instead of spending his final days in Baghdad celebrating and saying good-bye to family, Munther was in a panic.

 

President Donald Trump was about to sign an executive order that would ban immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries for 120 days, including Iraq.

Munther - a 37 year old chemical engineer and former translator for the US military - decided they couldn't wait. He told his family they were leaving Baghdad for the US immediately.

 

His wife Hiba protested - she hadn't finished packing, and her grandfather was about to have emergency surgery for cancer. She wanted to see him before they left. It was only four days, she told him.

"I don't think we have even one day," Munther said.

 

After hastily selling off the last of their furniture and some jewellery, Munther was able to raise the $5,000 (£4,022.50) needed for the next-day flight to Houston, with a connection through Istanbul, Turkey. The couple crammed the last of their possessions into gigantic roller suitcases, and told their distraught family members there'd been a drastic change of plans.

 

 

 

Saturday, 28 January

 

Baghdad

 

As his family slept, Munther flipped anxiously between CNN, Fox News and the BBC. It was just past midnight in Iraq, but in the US, it was still Friday afternoon. Munther watched President Trump at the Pentagon signing an executive order titled "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States".

"I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don't want them here," Trump said before placing his pen on the paper.

 

"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."

 

Munther believed that he firmly belonged in the latter category. He'd always been fascinated by America, learning English from watching action movies like Rambo and

The Terminator, and listening to Metallica as a teenager.

 

He stunned a group of Marines with his knowledge of American heavy metal after he met them at a checkpoint near a relative's home in Baghdad, back in 2003. At the time, he was still a student at the University of Technology, Iraq.

"You speak good English," the Marines told him. "Why don't you join us?"

 

Munther saw it as an opportunity to rebuild his country in the then-hopeful, post-Saddam Hussein era Iraq.

"I wanted to help the American army and the Iraqi people to understand each other. I was trying to help both of them," he said. "It was the right thing to do."

 

After the Marines left, Munther got a succession of jobs translating for the 3rd Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division. He was sent to the outskirts of Baghdad to help train the Iraqi National Guard. He manned the checkpoints. He had his own service weapon.

 

He developed a reputation for his punctuality and his sunny disposition. One former soldier described him to the BBC as a "critical asset", trustworthy with unflinching "integrity and morals".

 

The most dangerous assignment was with a unit clearing roadside bombs. His convoy was hit more than once.

Fellow translators were getting killed or losing limbs.

They were also getting murdered by members of al-Qaeda.

"They burned them alive. They cut their heads," Alaskry recalled. "In Arabic we say, 'You are putting your spirit on the palm of your hand.' Because you don't know what will happen next."

 

One day, Alaskry found a letter on his car telling him that he would burn in hell for working for the "infidels".

He fled for Jordan without telling anyone, but returned to Iraq a few years later to once again work for the Americans on a health care project for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In 2008, Munther married Hiba, also a chemical engineer. When their daughter Dima was born the following year, Munther realized that his young family had no future in Iraq. He was a marked man, and life in Baghdad was too unstable.

 

The family had to move every year to keep their whereabouts a secret. When American troops began pulling out for good in 2011, Munther felt abandoned, like a trap was closing in on him - a feeling that followed him for years.

"Everyday they are bombing us. Almost everyday, we have like a car bomb," he said. "It's not safe over here, especially [after] working with the Americans."

In 2010, Munther applied for a Special Immigrant Visa, reserved for Iraqis and Afghans who served with the US military and could prove their lives were under threatened as a result.

 

The programme was choked with applicants desperate to get out of the country. Delays mounted, as did the costs for doctor's exams and certificates from the local police ensuring Munther had no criminal record. Several American law enforcement agencies had to complete independent background checks on the family.

Finally, in December 2016, they were cleared. Their tickets were booked.

"We said, 'There will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We will go to the states. We will secure a better life for our kids."

 

 

Saturday, 28 January

 

Baghdad to Istanbul

 

In the early morning darkness, Munther and Hiba loaded their enormous bags and two sleepy children into a relative's car and left for the Baghdad airport.

It was the middle of the night in the US. Trump's order, now eight hours old, had not been uploaded to the White House website. As the family checked in, no one questioned their visas or their Iraqi passports.

 

As they waited for their first flight from Baghdad to Istanbul, Munther dashed off texts to his sponsors and former colleagues from USAID. He sent an email to his contacts at No One Left Behind, a non-profit in Washington founded by American soldiers to help translators resettle in the US.

"I'm so scared ... I don't know what we will face and I don't know if the officer at Istanbul will let us board on the Airplane," he wrote in one message. "Right now the only feeling i have is fear.

"Please pray for us."

 

The three-hour flight to Istanbul was unbearable. Munther quaked in his seat. It was, he said, "just like a horror movie - when you dream you're jumping from a high building".

 

In Istanbul, the family transferred to the plane to Houston without incident. After they took their seats, Munther put on cartoons for three year old Hassan. His daughter Dima, an exuberant, chatty seven year old, threw her arms around her father's neck, proclaiming this to be the best airplane she'd ever seen.

Munther started to relax. He reminded Dima of his promise to take her to Disney Land, a treat for which she'd been saving her pocket money.

About 15 minutes after they boarded, a Turkish police officer made her way down the aisle, followed by three uniformed airport security officers. They stopped at Hiba's seat.

"Madame, your passport please," the officer said.

At that moment, Munther says, "I knew our dream was lost".

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To read the rest of the story, click here : http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38885611

[Raskin]

It's shameful it took so long to get cleared in the first place....then our President just a did blanket ban without any plan to think of consequences ..he is either ignorant or uncaring or both....did he confer with other people if he did they are clueless too......like what we do with our Vets ..they fight,come home mentaly or physically scarred or both.. we should be giving them gold star treatment..its not like we don't have the money..we waste it on other things..

[CheepHeep]

It's shameful it took so long to get cleared in the first place....then our President just a did blanket ban without any plan to think of consequences ..he is either ignorant or uncaring or both....did he confer with other people if he did they are clueless too......like what we do with our Vets ..they fight,come home mentaly or physically scarred or both.. we should be giving them gold star treatment..its not like we don't have the money..we waste it on other things..

 

Well Said. Priorities are messed up. 

[RedBaird]

When American troops began pulling out for good in 2011, Munther felt abandoned, like a trap was closing in on him - a feeling that followed him for years.

 

 

That sounds like how the South Vietnamese felt.