Iraqi medics seek new life in UAE

Iraqi doctors are migrating to the UAE as the security situation worsens in the war-torn country.

Many assassination attempts have been made on professionals in Iraq, including medics. Dr Rabab Al Himly and Dr Saif Adel Abdullah are among those who fled the country.

Dr Rabab, who found a fresh start as a gynaecologist and obstetrician at Al Zahra Hospital in Sharjah, said she was given a 24-hour deadline to leave Iraq.

"It got to the point where my life was at risk. I had to leave," she said, adding that many of her colleagues have been killed.

She and her family came to the UAE in September this year, and she is happy to see her children attending university and school again.

Meanwhile, Dr Abdullah, a graduate in dentistry from Baghdad University, is hoping to start life afresh here. He arrived in the UAE in September this year.

"I worked hard for my degree – I almost died three times over it. Last April, a bomb struck Baghdad University and I was only 15 metres away," he said.

Dr Abdullah has been a target of death threats. He left his homeland and family business to follow his ambition of becoming a doctor. "I didn't want to follow my father to become a trader," he said.