“A lot of families here built homes with a similar sort of agreement, hoping that maybe one day they could buy the land,” al-Jumaili told NIQASH. “That means that today we have no right to compensation or to apply for these loans because we do not have the actual property titles.”
The war didn’t spare anyone but in this situation, they are considered “second class citizens,” al-Jumaili complains.
“Most of the families here don’t have any kind of contract,” adds Abdul Majid al-Aboud, 53, who lives in the Jazeera area, north of Ramadi, who says he was also hopeful at first but soon disappointed. “They either live in the shanty towns or they were sharing an apartment. That is actually the majority of people here who had property or housing destroyed. They have no options for financial compensation now.”
“When we heard that we were not covered by these loans we realized that the initiative is only to help the wealthy, those who are close to the government and a handful of others,” al-Aboud argues. “These do not represent the majority who need help, who are poor and needy and who were also the first to return to the cities and contribute to the life here.”
“These loans are not really suitable for low-income earners either,” adds Mahdi al-Hamadani, 44, a bank employee living in Fallujah. Successful applicants have to pay back around IQD417,000 (around US$350) a month for ten years, which is almost impossible for lower-income Iraqis to do, even if the loans are interest free.
Comments are closed.