Having waited for more than 20 years, many of those who once worked in Iraq have almost given up hope of their money, writes Mai Samih They spent years working in a foreign land, often enduring harsh working conditions. Yet, many Egyptian workers left Iraq without being paid following the 1990 Gulf War, in the hope that they would receive their money in the form of remittances. Today, 20 years later they are still waiting for their money, and many families are desperately struggling to retrieve the men's pay. Last month, some such workers demonstrated in Dokki in front of one bank where their money was expected after a manager denied them access. Back in 2006, the former minister of manpower and migration, Aisha Abdel-Hadi, managed to negotiate the refunding of 25 per cent per year of the remittances due to Egyptian workers in Iraq before 1989, but no action was taken. In 2011, former prime minister Essam Sharaf announced the beginning of negotiations for refunding the remittances. Talks were held between former minister of manpower Ahmed Boraai and his Iraqi counterpart Nassar Al-Robeiei, and the number of remittances was estimated at 637,000, worth $408 million. On 5 June 2011 the names of the banks that were to refund the remittances were announced after the Iraqi government agreed to refund them. However, there have still been problems. One 40-year-old widow and mother of eight children who chose to speak under condition of anonymity has been waiting for her former husband's remittances for years, and she complains about the chaos of the refunding process. "This is the third time I have come here, and they won't give me my money," she said, as she left one bank. "They keep sending me from one bank to another, and I don't know what to do." The woman is illiterate, but her relatives found her former husband's name on the ministry's website. "I've been to 15 banks so far, and have been told that the money has not come. I have to come all the way from Assiut three days a week, as I was told to go to Cairo to look for my husband's name," she said. Omar Mustafa, 50, the father of five, was a worker in an Iraqi company for a year and he has come to Cairo as his name was not clear on the remittance card when he went to ask for his refund in his local bank in Menoufiya. This is the fourth day of waiting for him, and he complains of the rough treatment. "We went to the Iraqi bank but found inhumane treatment. Things have become worse since the revolution. We are harassed by the security forces. When I finally made it to the manager's office, I was told that my name was at another bank." Mustafa was told to wait until the end of the refunding process, when his problems can be addressed. Hussein El-Sawi, 50, the father of four, who also worked in an Iraqi company for three years before the Gulf War, complains of the red tape in the banks. "I was told that my money was in a bank in my hometown in Gharbiya, but it turned out that my surname was mis-spelt so I was referred to the Cairo branch. After three days of waiting, I was told that my name was at another bank. Why should I be to blame for these mistakes?" One driver who chose to talk under condition of anonymity agreed. "I am supposed to have $1,700, so why did I get $1,500?" Said Abdel-Aal, 59, another claimant, had been working in Iraq before 1989 and has to come from Sohag every day for his remittance as his father's name was mis-spelt. "I'm an old man, and each employee sends me to a different place. I just can't take it anymore," he said. Alaa Awad, a spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower and migration, explained the so-called "yellow remittance" system. This system means that "each Egyptian citizen who was in Iraq during the Gulf War and was afraid to travel with his savings had to give them to a bank in Iraq. This bank would then transfer the money to Egypt, but the sums were not transferred. What happened was that previous governments insisted on tying this issue to that of other debts due from the Iraqi government, such as company debts and military debts," which made it difficult to refund the money for the Egyptian workers. "When we went to Iraq with former minister Ahmed Boraai, we discovered that Iraq had signed an international treaty with its debtors at the Paris Club, and that this said that due to the circumstances Iraq was in any country that was a creditor of Iraq could only take 20 per cent of what it was owed." "Boraai, a law professor, knew that personal rights had nothing to do with international treaties and that Egypt had not signed this treaty. After contacting Paris, we got documents to prove it, and the Iraqi government approved our request to be paid in full." According to Awad, Egyptian citizens expecting remittances from Iraq should receive them from 25 March to 27 May 2012. "Now more than 50 per cent of people have got their money," he said, while at the same time acknowledging that there have been problems due to a "lack of awareness and fears of not getting the money." People should not worry, he said. "Everyone should rest assured that the money is there, and that everyone will get their money back. No one can take it from them. We are also planning to negotiate for the interest on this money after the remittances are refunded." Two Iraqi banks are responsible for making the transfers, the Al-Rachid and Al-Rafedein banks. If an Egyptian citizen deposited money in either of these two banks, he will receive it back from the same bank. "The Central Bank has also organised a timetable for refunding the money. For example, remittances from May 1989 to March 1900 are in the first week and in the first phase. People also do not have to come to Cairo to get their remittances." However, Mustafa, who has been waiting for his money for 20 years, said that "the solution is that they should give us our remittances as soon as they see our IDs, not our passports." The 40-year-old widow also said that a faster method should be figured out, "because we are sick and tired of waiting." The anonymous driver said that the solution was to give the task of refunding to bank branches in the governorates, "so that no one has to travel all the way to Cairo." From Awad's point of view, there are some cases in which thoroughness is necessary, however. In some cases, people sold their remittances to others for lower prices than the actual sum written on their passports, and in others names are not clear on the remittance card because they were written 20 years ago. "The banks have to be absolutely certain that the person in front of them is the same person who sent the remittance from Iraq in the first place, which is why a passport is needed. In order to deal with any problems, we have opened a separate time interval from 27 May to 3 June 2012," he explained.
