A member of the Iraqi community in Ireland, Mr Abdul Kazim Huriz (68), is to meet Department of Justice officials today in a bid to obtain travel documents to allow him to return to Baghdad after 12 years as a refugee from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Wexford-based Mr Huriz arrived in Ireland on December 29th, 2001, and was given refugee status and placed under the care of the Reception and Integration Agency of the Department of Justice. He lives in a flat in Wexford town and speaks very little English.
Mr Huriz is entitled to remain in Ireland for an unlimited period but, with the fall of Saddam, he now wishes to return home.
His wife and three children - two sons and a daughter in their 30s - are living in Iraq, but he has no contact with them and no news of their welfare.
"I want to see my family and I am sick because of the waiting," he said yesterday, speaking through an interpreter.
He had no passport and said he required a document from the Department of Justice which would permit him to travel home.
While the Department yesterday declined to comment on the case, it is understood that his request will be met.
He plans to fly to Iran and cross the Iraqi border by land because it would be too dangerous to go via Jordan.
Mr Huriz said he currently receives an allowance from the Irish State of about €1,000 per month but that the flight to Iran would only cost about €400.
If the Government would not give him the money, it could be raised among the Iraqi community in Ireland which is about 400-450 strong.
He said he was entitled to a pension in Iraq because of his 25 years as a state employee.
Most of the Iraqi community live in Dublin and Mr Huriz said that because of his isolation in Wexford he was losing the ability to speak his own language. "I am losing the Arabic and losing my memory," he said.
The story of his time in Iraq is a familiar one of persecution and ill-treatment. After 25 years working in a government printing house in Iraq, he opened an independent bookshop in central Baghdad. He said this was burned down by the security services of the dictatorship when he refused to join the ruling Ba'ath Party.
He said he was hopeful about the future of Iraq. "We are going to have direct elections: all the parties in a clean election."