Iraqi refugees queue up to return home

Iraqi refugees are queuing up to return home after travelling for days to reach Germany.

"They gather people in horrible camps with no space to sleep, bathe or relax. There is no hope here in Germany. I hope nobody will leave their home to come here," Heval Aram told Euronews, after he and his family spent 12 days journeying to Germany, only to be dismayed by the conditions in the refugee camps.

Some claim the food is too pricey, while others are annoyed by the slow speed of the asylum process.

"You can't open the doors to refugees and then not see the process through," Mohammed Mohsen, who has been seeking asylum for five months, told Deutsche Welle."I am not allowed to bring my family, and I haven't received a permit to stay yet. I can't work, I can't move around freely."

Alla Hadrous, who owns a jewellery shop and runs a travel agency, added: "A lot have left already. I don’t have the exact figure, but it’s a lot. Some have had to sell their valuables – for example, in the jewellery shop next door – in order to buy a ticket back to Erbil or Baghdad."

Hamid Maheed, a booking agent at Iraqi Airways, told Deutsche Welle he had helped around 50 refugees return home ever week since October, with January seeing twice that amount.

Finland has found a similar situation, with almost 70 per cent of Iraqi refugees abandoning their claims for asylym and returning to their country.

Reuters quotes German Interior Ministry data, which shows that the number of Iraqis going back to Iraq hit 61 in September, compared to 10 on average in the first seven months of 2015. In December, that figure surged to 200.