Mortada Abed, 17, said he came to Najaf from the city of al-Diwaniyah in Qadisiyah province (33 kilometers east of Najaf) to work because there are no jobs in his hometown.
All the workers Al-Monitor spoke with said that many youths and men had left their cities to look for work in Najaf.
It is hard to verify the numbers because the local administration and the provincial council in Najaf do not possess any data on workers who came from outside the city.
Officials in both the local and provincial councils told Al-Monitor, “We cannot count the number of those who enter the province. There is no way to find out whether these displaced people have left the city or are still working here, as millions visit the city each year.”
These workers live and work under challenging circumstances, and some sleep on their own trolleys. After midnight in the old city, between al-Midan Square and the intersection between the old bus station and Abu Khamsin mall, a long line of trolleys are parked in front of the big hotels.
The men and children who try to make a living by providing services with trolleys sleep out in the open; they wake up at dawn to start their workday and return late at night. In the alleys of the old city, workers from out of town often sleep on the doorsteps of shops that are closed at night.
Mohammad Hussein Abu Saiba, a doctoral student in political science and the chairman of the Development Association for Political Sciences in Najaf, told Al-Monitor, “These workers stay in large caravansaries near al-Hatef Street in Khan al-Mokhdar area, where the trolleys are parked at night and each worker sleeps on his own trolley. On holidays these workers sleep in the large tents that are set up to receive visitors, as well as in permanent tents set up by some political parties in front of their headquarters. These parties allow the workers to sleep there in order to protect the children among the workers.”
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