Finding Refuge


Hayder Abdulwahab's life as a refugee can be traced to the day he awoke on a pile of bodies in a Baghdad morgue. That morning in 2004, he had stepped onto the balcony of his apartment, a 26-year-old Iraqi man ready for work. He was a bodyguard for an American employee with the U.S. military. But American soldiers in the street warned him to stay inside. In that moment, a car bomb exploded, shredding his body with metal and launching him on a journey to a small apartment near Tampa. Along the way he would endure broken promises from people he trusted, he would beg for help and hate himself for having to beg, he would struggle to decipher a bureaucracy that seemed indifferent to the medical care he needed most. In short, he would become like the thousands of other Iraqi refugees who have been brought to the United States, who have traded the physical danger of their home for the financial insecurity of forging a new life in a country weighed down by recession. They are brought here by a national refugee system that is ill-equipped to help them once they arrive. It is an existence so disorienting and frightening that some of the Iraqi refugees have contemplated returning to the violence in Iraq just so they could earn enough to support their families.


Excerpt of written story by Saundra Amrhein.

KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times TP_305549_FLYN_iraq_21 (2009) Hussein pouts because his brother wants to play Playstation and he would rather play with his toy cars. Hayder sits on the bed behind him. [KATHLEEN FLYNN, Times]
KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times TP_305549_FLYN_iraq (2009) Hayder Abdulwahab helps his wife Iman as she dips into the pool at their apartment complex on July 3, 2009. Iman can't swim so Hayder helped her along and carried her around the pool with the life sav
KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times TP_305549_FLYN_iraq (2009) Hayder Abdulwahab works out with weights as Hussein, 4, and Gailan, 9, play in their room in Tampa on June 15, 2009. Hayder had previously been a boxer and a body guard in Bagdad. But then he was inj
KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times TP_305549_FLYN_iraq_30 (2009) Hayder sits on his couch as his children are tutored in English. [KATHLEEN FLYNN, Times]
Hayder Abdulwahab carries his son Hussein, 4, Iman stands behind as they arrive back at their apartment from Sweetbay on May 19, 2009. The family receives food stamps which helps, but they struggle to pay rent and have had to rely on donations month to

1) Dr. Mark Roberts, left, examines Hayder Abdulwahab, as Hayder's interpreter, Ali Alzubaidi, points to injuries during a physical on June 1, 2009. Hayder came to Dr. Robert's with the hopes of getting a referral to an ophthalmologist. He was injured severely by a car bomb as he stood on the balcony of his apartment in Bagdad 5 years ago. One eye is completely blind and from the other he can only see shadows. Many of his loved ones died in Iraq and finally he, his wife Iman, and their two boys Gailan and Hussein fled to Syria and have been refugees in the United States for almost a year.


2) Hussein, 4, pulls on the cheeks of his father Hayder Abdulwahab while Iman tries to find products she can buy off of her food stamp list at Sweetbay on May 19, 2009. One of Hyder's eyes is completely blind and from the other he can see shadows.


3) Hussein pouts because his brother wants to play Playstation and he would rather play with his toy cars. Hayder sits on the bed behind him.


4) Hayder Abdulwahab helps his wife Iman as she dips into the pool at their apartment complex on July 3, 2009. Iman can't swim so Hayder helped her along and carried her around the pool with the lifebouy at right.


5) Hayder works out with weights as Hussein, 4, and Gailan, 9, play in their room in Tampa on June 15, 2009. Hayder had previously been a boxer and a body guard in Bagdad.


6) Hayder sits on his couch as his children are tutored in English.


7) Hayder Abdulwahab carries his son Hussein, 4, Iman stands behind as they arrive back at their apartment from Sweetbay on May 19, 2009. The family receives food stamps which helps, but they struggle to pay rent and have had to rely on donations month to month.


8) Family and friends celebrate Hayder's birthday at his apartment in Tampa.


9) Hayder opens the shades in the boys room one morning in Tampa. The Abdulwahab's transition to the United States has been a struggle, but Hayder hopes surgery to improve his sight will allow him to work and provide for his family again.

Close
Using Format