Unemployment and poverty surge in south Iraq

In Iraq’s southern province of Basra, the oil flows freely but little of the wealth trickles down to the people, and many struggle to make ends meet.

Sajad, 17, who lives in Basra city, says he “has no future” and no present. Like other young people, he says he just survives, a living emblem of the city’s maladies.

Basra province produces about 70 percent of crude oil in Iraq, itself the second biggest exporter in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.

Yet the province is hit especially hard by many of the problems plaguing Iraq, which is still seeking to recover from years of war and turmoil since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Unemployment in Basra affects 20 to 25 percent of the people and almost 30 percent of youth, estimated Iraqi economist Barik Schuber in the absence of official figures. This compares to a national rate of 13.7 percent, according to World Bank figures.

From patchy supplies of water and electricity, to pockmarked roads and toxic pollution caused by extracting hydrocarbons, Basra province and its four million inhabitants are struggling.

People are angry

But what hits hardest is the despair of the young. 

Gathered around their shisha pipes, Sajad and Jawad, both aged 16, are hard pressed to find anything to be optimistic about. Sajad does not work, while Jawad said he toils for “eight to 13 hours in a restaurant for 7,000 dinars (about $4.80) per day”.