Makeshift camp for Nepalese squatters in Baghdad

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A clutter of makeshift shelters is tucked away from the road that runs through Baghdad’s well-secured airport zone.
About 50 Nepalese men and a handful of Indians are living under the jumble of wooden planks and soiled carpets. Some of the shelters have scraps of tarpaulin over the top to keep out the rain but there is little protection from the winter chill.
“We have no money, no food, no toilet, no water, no job,” said Ganesh Kumar Bhagat, 22. “The first time I arrived here I was happy, I had a good feeling. But we have not been lucky. Nobody should come to Iraq.”
He and the others say they paid agents in their home country up to 5,000 dollars to bring them to Iraq on the promise of a job at one of the many American military bases, earning 800 dollars a month.
Instead, the men find themselves abandoned and penniless. They live off food donated by other people from developing countries who have found work.

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admin @ December 3, 2008