Iraqi archbishop: 20% of local Christians emigrated in 2014
September 01, 2015
The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Basra said that 20% of Christian families emigrated from the city in 2014.
Basra, the largest city under Iraqi government control after Baghdad, is far from the region controlled by the Islamic State. The city “is considered to be a safe place with good employment opportunities and improving income levels,” said Archbishop Habib Hormuz Jajou Al-Naufali.
Nonetheless, Christians are seeking “political asylum because of persecutions” and are leaving because of “economic reasons caused by kidnapping, plundering and theft,” as well as because of “social reasons, the need to be emancipated from the restrains of the Iraqi society,” he said in an article posted on the website of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate.
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