Exhausted from flights that brought them from Jordan to New Jersey and finally Colorado, Nazar Al Taei, his wife and their three children arrived at Denver International Airport early Tuesday — the first of the more than 1,400 Iraqi refugees scheduled to arrive in the United States and Denver in the coming weeks. A host of news cameras were there to greet the weary travelers, who were too tired for interviews.
“I’m flying for 30 hours — I get 30 hours of sleep and then I can talk, anything,” Nazar Al Taei said.
The Al Taei family arrived on a United Airlines flight from Newark and were transported by refugee assistance agency officials to a furnished apartment and stocked refrigerator, arranged by their hosts.
Their children will be attending local schools.
“At this time the family is very tired; they’re happy to be here of course and start a new life,” said Ferdi Mevlani, executive director of Ecumenical Refugee and Immigration Services, Inc.
In the next few days, the Al Taei family will work with refugee assistance groups to get documentation such as Social Security cards and state IDs, Mevlani said.
Chuck Willis, who represents the First Plymouth Congregational Church, cosponsored the family.
“We’re very excited about this, our first Iraqi family,” Willis said.
Nazar Al Taei, who had worked as a translator for the American military, arrived with his wife, Hadeen Qahtan Jameel, his 10-year-old daughter, Tara, and his 7-year-old son, Mustafa in tow. His 1-year-old son, Hasan Nazar, slept soundly in his stroller as cameras clicked over him.
While in many cases refugees to this country arrive with barely a backpack of belongings, the Al Taei family checked in eight bags.
Nazar Al Taei suffered nerve damage in his legs, and fearing for his family’s lives, fled to Jordan. Before the war in Iraq, Al Taei and his wife worked as Russian-language teachers.
Denver is among U.S. cities giving homes to these refugees, whose numbers may increase to 12,000 by next year, federal Homeland Security officials have said.
Within a 10-year period, the U.S. has accepted an average of 2,800 Iraqi refugees a year. Those numbers have dropped since 2002 to 191.
The influx of Iraqi refugees is in response to pressure to ease a worsening humanitarian crisis, State Department officials say. United Nations officials last week estimated one in seven Iraqis have left their homes.
More than 2 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries — the largest Middle East displacement since the 1948 creation of Israel.
Others slated for resettlement in Denver include a woman with breast cancer who hasn’t seen her husband since last year and another who worked as an interpreter and secretary and is suffering from serious depression and anxiety, the documents show.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-954-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
