UN staff relive Iraqi refugee horror

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By Martin Patience BBC News, Damascus "You hear a lot of horrible stories," says Caroline Abdullah, 26, a UN registration clerk, "stuff that you wouldn't expect human beings to be doing to each other."

About 120,000 Iraqi refugees have registered with the UNHCR in Syria

"I was helping a family, in which the husband was held back by three militiamen while his daughter and wife were raped in front of his eyes."

"The wife actually died from the attack and the daughter now has psychological problems."

For Ms Abdullah and her colleagues, hearing these horrific stories is all part of a day's work.

As registration clerks at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Damascus, they document the experiences of Iraqi refugees - often a diet of rape, torture, killing and violence - in their homeland.

Traumatic experience

These one-hour long interviews take place in a corridor that resembles a hospital ward.

There are about 40 cubicles, each with a white curtain in order to give the refugees a degree of privacy.

Refugees sometimes show physical scars from the violence in Iraq

Earlier this year, the UN moved its registration centre from a leafy Damascus neighbourhood to a bigger location on the outskirts of the city, following a surge in demand for registration.

About 120,000 Iraqi refugees have now registered with the organisation, which entitles them to health care, food handouts, and official status as refugees.

Most of the refugees wait six months for their interview and it is often a deeply traumatic experience.

One in four Iraqi refugees has been the victim of torture or violence, according to the UN.

Emotional intensity

Many of the UN staff are deeply affected by what they hear and see during the interview process.

Occasionally, refugees remove clothing to show them scars from beatings or shrapnel wounds.

Maybe it's too much of an exaggeration, but I believe [the registration clerks] relive what the Iraqi refugees have experienced Theodara TsoviliUNHCR psychologist

Many suffer from anxiety and depression because of the intensity of the work.

Theodara Tsovili, a psychologist who works at the centre, says a small number suffer post-traumatic stress.

"Maybe it's too much of an exaggeration, but I believe that they relive what the Iraqi refugees have experienced," she says.

"They share the same feelings and emotions."

Commitment to help

The employees here are encouraged to speak to each other about their experiences. They often go for meals together or on short trips to try to deal with the stress.

Refugees go through hell to come here and I have so much respect for them Samer Shammout

For most of them, it is the most stressful job they have ever had.

But despite the emotional intensity of the job, there is a strong commitment here to help the refugees.

"One refugee told me that he didn't care what happened next, that he was just glad to have met me that day," says Samer Shammout, 25, another registration clerk.

"Refugees go through hell to come here and I have so much respect for them," he adds.