NBC Highlights Returning Iraqis: 'I Can't Wait to Get Back'

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“There is a noticeable trend under way. A growing stream of Iraqis who left to escape the killing, many of them going to Syria, now reversing their migration,” anchor Brian Williams highlighted Tuesday evening as the NBC Nightly News became the first broadcast network evening newscast to air a full report on the trend.

From Baghdad, reporter Tom Aspell showcased a mother who exclaimed: “I'm so excited” and “I can't wait to get back.” Aspell explained: “Though safer, life in Syria turned out to be hard. $300 a month rent and food for the family of seven wiped out their savings. So when the Iraqi government offered free bus tickets to Baghdad, today's opportunity was too good to miss.” Adding the caveat that a safer Iraq is not the main motivator, Aspell noted: “A recent UN survey at registration centers found most Iraqi refugees are returning home not because Iraq is any safer, but because they're running out of money, and Syria is clamping down on visas.” Aspell, however, acknowledged upbeat trends: “Refugees coming back to Baghdad are going to see a lot of changes. There are more people in the streets, shops are open and traffic everywhere.” Though Aspell pointed out how “it is still a dangerous city. There are kidnappings, shootings and bomb blasts every day,” another mother, nonetheless, decided: “Thank God we returned and found the situation better than when we left.”

Before NBC's Tuesday night story, broadcast network evening show coverage of returning refugees was limited to part of a sentence by fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell, who noted the night before Thanksgiving (November 21) that “the Baghdad government said today some 1600 refugees are now returning to Iraq each day” (see link below to the Nov. 26 NB post for the full story Mitchell was introducing), and this short update the same night from ABC anchor Charles Gibson:

We turn next to Iraq, and the story of a reverse exodus. The interior ministry in Iraq says that about 1,000 Iraqis are returning to their country every day. These are Iraqis who had fled to other nations -- Syria, mostly -- to escape the violence. And many of those returning believe it is safer now.

ABC's World News leads with four full reports since late October on improving conditions in Iraq, followed by two before tonight on the NBC Nightly News and just one on the CBS Evening News. My November 26 NewsBusters item, “CBS Grudgingly Acknowledges Progress in Iraq, But...,” provides a rundown of all the positive stories on all three networks.

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the November 27 NBC Nightly News story:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: In Iraq, two American soldiers were killed today north of Baghdad. And violence across the country today has killed at least 30 Iraqis. There is a noticeable trend under way. A growing stream of Iraqis who left to escape the killing, many of them going to Syria, now reversing their migration. NBC's Tom Aspell reports tonight from Baghdad.

TOM ASPELL: Time to go home. Four months ago, the Balabas family left Iraq after Sunni militiamen forced them out of their house. In Damascus this morning, with plastic suitcases, a tattered soccer ball and their precious pet pigeons, the family said goodbye. "I'm so excited," said Fatimah. "I can't wait to get back." Though safer, life in Syria turned out to be hard. $300 a month rent and food for the family of seven wiped out their savings. So when the Iraqi government offered free bus tickets to Baghdad, today's opportunity was too good to miss. The Iraqi government has even launched a satellite TV commercial to get the one million Iraqi refugees in Syria to return home. It shows a family returning to clean and quiet streets. But a recent U.N. survey at registration centers found most Iraqi refugees are returning home not because Iraq is any safer, but because they're running out of money, and Syria is clamping down on visas. The U.N. says it's not ready to say it's safe for Iraqis to go back.

SYBELLA WILKES, UNHCR Spokesperson: The question is, is it a lottery? Is it safe for you to go back? And that's the question that refugees themselves have to make up their own minds.

ASPELL: Refugees coming back to Baghdad are going to see a lot of changes. There are more people in the streets, shops are open and traffic everywhere. But it is still a dangerous city. There are kidnappings, shootings and bomb blasts every day. Hosham Abdul Rahman, a goldsmith, took his family to Syria for a month before returning to Baghdad. He ran out of money, too. His wife Hallah at home says it was the right choice. "Thank God we returned and found the situation better than when we left," she says. That's all the Balabas family was hoping for when their bus, one of 14 carrying 500 Iraqis, left Damascus for Baghdad this afternoon, enough security to enable them to restart their lives in their own country. Tom Aspell, NBC News, Baghdad.