Syriske flyktninger til Irak regnet med å bli mottatt med åpne armer, tross alt tok Syria mot 1,2 millioner irakere. Men mottakelsen har vært heller kjølig, så kjølig at syrere angrer å at de dro.

Flyktningene blir innlosjert i skoler og får ikke lov å forlate området. Ikke en gang hvis de har slektninger i Irak.

Irakiske sunnier er rasende over behandlingen de får, og har demonstrert.

Sympatiene og antipatiene er infløkte: Shiastyret i Irak frykter sunni-fundamentalismen på opprørssiden i Syria. Derfor er man mer tilbøyelig til å støtte eller passivt støtte Assad. Al Qaida i Irak rører også på seg igjen.

Muhammed Muafak tok med seg familien og dro til Irak:

He expected a warm welcome. After all, his country had taken in 1.2 million Iraqis during their recent war, far more than any of Iraq’s other neighbors, and had allowed them to work, send their children to public schools and receive state medical care.

Instead, Mr. Muafak found himself and his family locked up in a school under guard with several hundred other Syrians, forbidden to leave to visit relatives in Iraq or to do anything else.

“We wish to go back to Syria and die there instead of living here in this prison,” said Abdul Hay Majeed, another Syrian held in a school building, along with 11 family members. Mr. Majeed was refused permission for that either, he and other refugees said.

The Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in Iraq, while officially neutral, has been supportive of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose ruling Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Last week, for instance, Iraq abstained from supporting a resolution by the Arab League calling for Mr. Assad to step down, calling it unwarranted interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Though Syrians have been fleeing the unrest in their country for months, Iraq did not open its borders to refugees until last week, after protests from the Sunni tribes in Anbar Province. The Bukamal border crossing, near this city, is the most problematic one for Iraq, with the Syrian side now under the control of opposition forces.

The restrictions Baghdad has imposed on refugees proved so severe that on Friday, representatives of the Anbar tribes and hundreds of followers took to the streets in the 125-degree midday heat to protest the treatment of the newly arriving Syrians, many of whom have family and tribal connections with Iraqis here.

Syrian Refugees Are Stung by a Hostile Reception in Iraq