[He fled due to Saddam Hussain, now he is dead why does he not go back?-ed]

Halim Ibrahim and his family are among the half of all Iraqis who choose Sweden as their destination when they flee to Europe from their war-torn homeland.

“We wanted to get as far away from Iraq as possible,” said 50-year-old Halim, standing outside his ground floor flat in southern Sweden.

Last year Sweden received 8,950 asylum applications from Iraqis, nearly half of the 22,200 who came to Europe. The United Kingdom received only 1,305, according to UN statistics.

A long-term opponent of Saddam Hussein and a Shia Muslim from southern Iraq, Halim would get taken away by the police to be interrogated on a regular basis.

For days he would be gone without his family knowing if he was still alive.

“The police harassed anyone who was related to me because they knew I had been politically active. I had to leave to save myself and my family,” he said.

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