Azhar and his children, Osama and Dunya, share a moment together as they pose for the camera in their home. ©UNHCR/Karlo Jeelo
For years, Azhar set off to work each morning with a knot of worry tightening in his chest. As a day labourer in the construction sector, he faced constant uncertainty—not just about securing work and a wage for the day, but about the safety and well-being of his family back home. Lacking documentation, they were vulnerable, without reliable access to the services they might need if something went wrong.
In 2014, Azhar and his family had fled Fallujah, seeking safety in Baghdad. Since then, he explains, they’d been tangled in a bureaucratic web, struggling to secure official documents for their children. Born into displacement, his children needed papers that could only be obtained by returning to the very place they left.
As a result, Azhar was unable to register his children in the local schools and health clinics would turn them away. Coupled with the family’s lack of financial means to be able to access these services privately, this left them in a precarious situation.
I was very worried about their future,” Azhar states. “No one would accept them without documentation. I felt lost.
Azhar helps his children get ready for school, ensuring they have everything they need for the day ahead. ©UNHCR/Karlo Jeelo
Earlier in 2024, however, everything changed when UNHCR’s partner, the Legal Clinics Network (LCN), learned about Azhar’s case and stepped into help.
A significant obstacle was that, because Azhar’s children were above a certain age, they needed to go to court to certify their births and family lineage. As part of this, they also took a DNA test to prove that Azhar was their father. With the support of LCN and UNHCR, within 12 months, Osama and Dunia received their birth certificates and national IDs.
The first thing I did when they got their documentation was take them to school. It was a day I’ll never forget, Azhar recalls with a smile, pride and relief evident in his eyes.
In his home in Radwanieh, Azhar holds both of his children’s Unified IDs, a vital document for their future. ©UNHCR/Karlo Jeelo
Osama and Dunia’s documents are just some among 31,000 civil records secured for displaced Iraqis through UNHCR’s support and in collaboration with Iraq’s Ministry of Interior so far in 2024. Working with partners like Harikar, Heartland Alliance International, IRC, INTERSOS, LCN, and Terre des Hommes, civil documentation enables families like Azhar’s critical access to education, healthcare, and other social services. Having these documents also allows them to exercise essential rights, including freedom of movement and civic participation.
For Azhar and his children, receiving their documents was a moment of restored hope and an important step towards realizing their dreams of becoming a lawyer and a doctor. What had once felt like an unscalable barrier is now a bridge to possibility and a brighter future.
“I had lost all hope for a good future for my children,” he reflects, a newfound optimism in his voice. “But now, with their education and rights secured, anything seems possible.”
UNHCR thanks its major donors who supported our efforts in civil documentation: Canada, France, the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the Netherlands through the PROSPECTS partnership and the United States.
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