An Iraqi doctor has been stranded for several months in Ireland because his passport has expired and he cannot find out how to return legally to the occupied country.
Dr Noori Alquazzaz urgently wants to return to post-war Iraq to collect documents which he needs to begin working in Ireland, where he has residency.
However, his passport has lapsed and he does not wish to take the risk of travelling with out of date papers to Baghdad, where his wife and one of his three sons currently live.
Dr Alquazzaz said he made exhaustive and fruitless inquiries with the United Kingdom and United States embassies in Dublin as well as the Department of Justice and the Red Cross, but has been unable to find out how to renew his passport. The Iraqi embassy in London, where he would normally have his papers processed, is no longer operating.
The UK and the US are in charge of overseeing the country's reconstruction as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
The paediatrician, who practised in Ireland in the 1980s, came to Dublin last September and is living with his two adult sons, who are Irish citizens studying here.
He wants to work here, but has been told by the Irish Medical Council that he has to supply verification from the Iraqi Medical Council to renew his registration as a doctor, which has lapsed.
However, he has been unable to contact the Baghdad offices of the Iraqi Medical Council and wants to return home to try to sort out the matter. For two months, he has been making inquiries in Dublin about how to renew his passport following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"I came from abroad to support my sons but now they are supporting me for nine months as I am not on social welfare," he said yesterday.
"It's urgent because I've been waiting for nine months to get work in a hospital here."
A spokeswoman for the UK embassy in Dublin referred The Irish Times to an Iraqi interest section in the Jordanian embassy in London. However, the telephone number was constantly engaged yesterday afternoon. Dr Alquazzaz said he had sent several e-mails to the Jordanian embassy in London but had not received any replies.
A spokeswoman for the United States embassy in Dublin said the CPA had made an order on June 27th allowing all Iraqis with expired passports to travel directly to Iraq this year. She said Dr Alquazzaz could definitely get into Iraq, although his return may be delayed as a proposed travel permit authority which could issue him with new documents has not yet been established.
Father Bobby Gilmore from the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland said Dr Alquazzaz was "stuck in a nowhere zone".