Jami: That’s what we wanted to do, but my cousin was in prison under Sadaam, and so we wouldn’t have got visas. There was nothing for it but to leave illegally. We had no choice.….

Ali: And what about that quarantine?

Jami: Quarantine means that they kept us for 6 weeks in a special camp in Červený Újezd, and examined us to see if we hadn’t brought some horrible Iraqi illness with us. On the other hand we were pleased, because dad really was ill, and it was only there that they realised he had diabetes, and at least they helped him.

Magda: That was like something out of a western, I don’t envy you one little bit.