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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: Rising threat against academics fuels brain drain
BAGHDAD, 28 October 2004 (IRIN) - A growing number of threats against academics is leading many to look for opportunities abroad, leaving a gap in the education sector and helping to further destabilise the country, students and teachers say.
"I never expected to have to leave my country, but now things change, there is no security here anymore and I have a family to look after, its really terrible," Dr Hadeel Mashhadany, professor of dentistry at Baghdad's Mustansirya University, told IRIN.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime 18 months ago almost 28 university teachers and administrators have been killed, while 13 professors were kidnapped and released on payment of ransom, according to the Iraqi Association of University Lecturers.
Dr Muai'ed Hassan, a professor at the College of Pharmacy at Baghdad University, was a victim of kidnapping some months ago. He was released after his family paid a ransom but now they will leave Iraq for his family's sake, he told IRIN. "I dedicated myself to building up this college, which is an example for the Iraqi people and now I will have to leave it and take nothing with me except for memories," he said.
Ongoing death threats received by many academics and the ever deterioating security situation are forcing those who can to get out.
Most of those leaving the country go to the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Syria or the United Arab Emirates. But others who are able to get the visas are also going to the UK or the USA to work.
Syria has just opened a new science and technology university and almost 70 percent of the teaching staff is made up of Iraqi professionals who have left the country in recent months, sources said.
Students told IRIN that the situation is causing a drop in the quality of higher education in Iraq. "The best professors are leaving the country and we are losing the best professionals, the real losers are the new generation of students - the future of Iraq," Abbas Muhammad, a student of Pharmacy at Baghdad University said.
After the war, teachers were targeted for being Baathists, but since the new interim government assumed power reasons for them being victims are more complicated. As professionals with stable jobs they present easy targets for gangs who simply want to get money. The fact that many have a chance to leave makes them attractive to those groups whose main objective is to bring more chaos to Iraq by removing some of the people who could help rebuild it. The difficulty of providing proper security makes the growing problem all the harder to tackle.
Mashhadany said that they cannot afford special security for themselves, and that they go to lessons afraid that someone could kill or kidnap them at any time.
Sabah Kadham, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, told IRIN that they were trying to give protection to students and teachers at all universities in Iraq, but he also said that they could not afford around the clock security for all. "What we are working on is to end the general problem of security in the country," he added.
Kadham added that the Iraqi police were being deployed at all universities and school entrances in order to make professionals feel secure, at least at their work places. Cars in the areas were also being observed and suspects checked.
Last week another teacher was kidnapped. So far his family have had no word from the kidnappers. A colleague, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, said that the teacher was leaving the college when a car with five men in it approached him and put a gun to his head, forcing him to enter in their car. "There is no safety in this country anymore," he added.
"Its really sad when you see that experts are leaving the country and no one is staying here for Iraq's reconstruction, there is no democracy at all, there are no expectations for the future," Mustafa Karim, a student of Medicine at Mustansirya University told IRIN.
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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