Migrant Wave Inspires Others to Attempt Trek to Europe. Iraqis are joining Syrians in taking what to many seems like a ‘golden opportunity’

Migrant Wave Inspires Others to Attempt Trek to Europe

Iraqis are joining Syrians in taking what to many seems like a ‘golden opportunity’

By NOUR MALAS

 JOE PARKINSON

Updated Sept. 7, 2015 8:18 p.m. ET http://www.wsj.com/articles/migrant-wave-inspires-others-to-attempt-trek-to-europe-1441668591?mod=e2fb

 Stories and images of migrants pouring into Europe are inspiring thousands more, from Iraq to Nigeria, to rush out on their own risky journeys, posing a burgeoning problem for policy makers who are focused mainly on easing the plight of Syrian refugees.

Inspired by phone calls and Facebook posts from friends hiking through the Balkans, crossing into Germany or simply touching dry land in Greece, people from countries long plagued by war and instability say they are seizing a pivotal moment.

“This is a golden opportunity,” said Osama Ahmed, 27 years old, who lined up Sunday at Baghdad International Airport, heading for Greece via Turkey with five friends. “It’s totally nonsense to stay in Iraq when there is a chance to go.”

The prospect of a secondary wave comes as the European Union tries to hammer out a common response to the crisis already on its shores. Germany, which has taken in the most asylum seekers, wants other EU countries to absorb more. France and the U.K. announced Monday they would do so. But other governments have resisted, fearing a political backlash.

Syrians still make up the bulk of the outflow. In Turkey, which hosts almost two million Syrian refugees, officials spoke of a rush for the border, sparked by Berlin’s decision last month to waive EU rules, on humanitarian grounds, and allow Syrian refugees to stay however they arrived in Germany.

“A number of Syrians who didn’t want to risk what they had until now, decided that the potential benefits are outweighing the risks,” said one government official in Ankara.

Many Syrians who arrived in Germany months ago are urging elderly parents left behind to follow their path, once thought too dangerous.

Iraqis, long inured to the violence in their own country, are also lured by reports that the route across the Aegean Sea to Greece is easier and cheaper than an older smuggling stream through North Africa and across the Mediterranean.

Baghdad travel agents report surging demand for plane tickets, prompting airlines to add three more daily flights to Istanbul—on top of five packed flights a day already. Some Iraqis are forgoing resettlement applications for the U.S., a process that takes years.

“We got many phone calls and emails from friends already abroad telling us to leave Iraq now—immediately—since the European authorities are being easy on migrants,” said Mr. Ahmed, who said his plan is to reach Belgium.

Officials in countries hosting Syrian refugees, and organizations tracking broader inflows to Europe through Greece, said they hadn’t yet seen tangible signs of a new mass migration. Last month’s surge was the culmination of overlapping waves of planned and spontaneous migration from several countries, field workers from the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration said.

“It’s too early to say what the impact of the Germany move will be,” said Ariane Rummery, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva. “We would argue that the push factors are driving this.”

The migrant wave is still predominantly spurred by continued violence, instability and deteriorating prospects in host nations like Turkey, where the economy has slowed sharply and jobs are hard to secure. But the additional pull of Germany’s policy shift is also reverberating across the region.

The six young men at the Baghdad airport, all dressed in track suits and open-toed slippers, said they asked their families not to come for a final goodbye, so as not to risk changing their minds. They have been taking swimming lessons and running for weeks to train for their trek, Mr. Ahmed said.

Last week, they saw television images of the human flood marching through Hungary and arriving in Germany and immediately bought plane tickets to Turkey and packed a duffle bag each, Mr. Ahmed said.

The Iraqi outflow is most visible on one Greek island, Samos, where local officials have noted a significant influx of Iraqis in recent days, according to early field reporting from the IOM.

Nearly 6,000 Iraqis arrived in Greece and Italy this year, a fivefold increase from last year, reflecting frustration and hopelessness as the war against Islamic State drags on, the economy tanks, and young Iraqis see more reasons to leave than stay.

“We are heading to Turkey. Then Greece, then Holland, then freedom,” said 24-year-old Raad Ahmed, a political-science student who was part of another group of Iraqis about to embark on a European journey. “Don’t ask me why I’m leaving. Let me ask you in return—for what should I stay?”

As far away as Nigeria, people driven out of their homes by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency are following EU discussions on the radio to consider their escape. “Most of us who are aware of the migration trend across the world are still unsure on what exactly to do, but most of us would rather damn the consequences and make our way to Europe for better opportunities in life,” said Salisu Sanusi, one of some 800,000 people at a camp in northern Nigeria.

The flow of migrants across Europe showed no sign of easing, part of the largest wave since World War II, according to the U.N. Policy makers are considering how to respond to asylum seekers from other nations that have joined the predominantly Syrian inflow, even as Germany’s decision to ease the path for Syrians comes under fire from right-wing groups across Europe.

“This will get complicated: Europe hasn’t seen anything yet in terms of the numbers or the backlash,” said Judy Dempsey, a senior associate in Berlin at Carnegie Europe, a policy think tank. Ms. Dempsey said migrants are being driven by a fear “they will miss their chance because this influx won’t be sustained.”

The choices are weighing heavily on people like a 29-year-old Syrian opposition activist who fled his hometown in Aleppo province in Syria for Turkey last year, taking on Syrian opposition activities but never finding a long-term job.

He has decided three times since then to migrate to Europe, only to abandon his plans. He remains undecided, in anguish, even as he watches others making it to Europe. If he goes, he says he would test the path alone first before sending for his wife and baby.

Syrians scattered across the region are increasingly making this calculation, as prospects for returning home dim and life in exile becomes more permanent. “Now leaving to Europe has become the topic of discussion at every gathering,” instead of the usual talk about war, girls, and soccer, he said.

In Iraq, many people who can’t afford the flight to Turkey fly domestically to Erbil, capital of the northern Kurdistan region, and take a 36-hour overland route instead. Some are scrambling to sell their most expensive belongings, such as jewelry or used laptops, to scrape up a few hundred dollars to get them through at least the first leg of their travel.

On the way, Iraqis trade notes on offers from smugglers and whether it is safe to take an inflatable dingy, rather than a boat, to save money—despite the risks, and promises to parents to only consider a safe boat ride.

Syrians and Iraqis also swap this advice on dozens of Facebook groups set up in recent months as how-to guides, often turning strangers into travel partners for the nerve-racking journey ahead.

They offer Google Map-guided route options, video testimonies from people in Europe, and endless dark humor. Iraqis—divided along several ethnic and sectarian lines—come in just two categories these days, one such joke goes: those with the means for the journey out, and the “newfound patriots”—those without the means and stuck behind.

— Ghassan Adnan in Baghdad; Raja Abdulrahim in Reyhanli, Turkey; Ayla Albayrak in Istanbul; and Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri, Nigeria contributed to this article.

—Deborah Ball, The Wall Street Journal’s Italy bureau chief, will be answering questions on the refugee crisis at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday. Follow this link to ask a question.

Write to Nour Malas at nour.malas@wsj.com and Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@wsj.com