An Iraqi refugee who escaped a bomb attack on his home died after suffering multiple strokes during a fruitless nine-year wait for resettlement by the UN.

His grieving widow told openDemocracy from Turkey this week that she believes the anxiety caused by the family’s decade in limbo contributed to his death.

openDemocracy revealed last week how a toddler died, and his sister became seriously ill, while waiting desperately to be resettled by the UN’s refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Several other refugee families, all registered with the UNHCR, have since come forward with documents that show they too have been waiting years.

The stories pile more pressure on UK home secretary Suella Braverman as her controversial Illegal Migration Bill is scrutinised by the House of Lords. Braverman has justified the bill’s crackdown on people arriving in the UK by small boats with claims that refugees are able to access safe routes to resettlement through the UNHCR.

The UNHCR itself says the resettlement scheme is not supposed to replace the right to seek asylum through other means, but is intended for people who cannot return home and cannot stay safely wherever they have initially sought refuge.

SNP home affairs spokesperson Alison Thewliss said the tragedies should make ministers “hang their heads in shame” and were the consequence of “Westminster’s decision to callously close our borders to those who need our help the most”.

Shurooq*, 50, fled Iraq in 2014 after her family started receiving threatening anonymous phone calls, which she believes were from a militia, and a bomb was placed in their home.

Shurooq, her husband and her three young children survived because they were visiting relatives when it detonated, but her niece, who was in the house at the time, was killed.

After making the journey to Turkey, they were registered by the UNHCR in 2014. But it took a further four years before they were even interviewed by the refugee agency.

In 2019, the family was interviewed again, this time in person, by UN officials. Four days later, Shurooq’s husband had a stroke. She believes it was caused by the stress of the interview and fears for their future.

Her husband’s health continued to deteriorate and he was left paralysed after a subsequent stroke. In February, when he fell ill, Shurooq quickly recognised that he was showing symptoms of a further stroke.

She took him to hospital, but said the doctor blamed his symptoms on diabetes. The next day, with her husband’s condition worsening, she returned to hospital and a specialist told her he had been misdiagnosed. He was admitted to a critical care ward and died 10 days later, at the age of 65.

“They [UNHCR] have not contacted me since I informed them of my husband’s death,” she told openDemocracy, “even though the anxiety he felt about our children’s future because of the delays in our case led to it.”

Now, she fears that her eldest son, who is 15, will be forced to support the family by working.

Already, the €18 a month her husband was receiving as an emergency social safety net payment from the European Union has been stopped, drastically cutting their household budget.

Life in Turkey has been difficult for Shurooq and her children, who she says have faced discrimination at school.

Another Iraqi family told openDemocracy that their child, who has Down’s syndrome, has been unable to receive the support she needs to get an education while they have waited more than a decade for resettlement.

The family of five said they fled Iraq to Egypt in 2007 after two of their close relatives – a grandfather and uncle – were killed in sectarian violence. Once there, they were registered by the UNHCR but forced to flee again, this time to Turkey, when turmoil engulfed the country following the 2011 revolution.

In Turkey, they struggled to find the specialised education their now 18-year-old daughter needs.

“Since we came to Turkey, we have tried to find a place for her at a special needs school, but the language barrier and trauma have made integrating hard for her,” said the young woman’s mother.

“She has become afraid of going out and she hasn’t been able to make friends. We wish we could provide her with everything that helps her to be as active as other girls her age.”

The family said that they hoped to be resettled in the UK because they had found specialists that they believe could help her daughter there.

A UNHCR spokesperson said it considers refugees for resettlement “based on an individualised assessment – and factors taken into account include personal circumstances, risks and concerns in the country of asylum, circumstances (and any changes) in the country of origin, among others.

“There is no average or standard time frame for any particular nationalities to be considered for resettlement. Equally, there is no ‘queue’ or wait list for resettlement – and there may be many refugees waiting for years for a solution. Final decisions with regard to resettlement are taken by the receiving countries and not UNHCR.”

All the Iraqi refugees openDemocracy spoke to said requests to UNHCR for information about their case have been ignored and some alleged they had been reprimanded by officials for complaining.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “The government’s refugee policy is mainly focused on keeping people out and not keeping people safe.

“People fleeing persecution are forced into using smuggling gangs and taking dangerous routes in flimsy boats or in the back of lorries because ministers refuse to expand safe routes.

“This is playing out right now in real time as the dismal support for people fleeing the Taliban is leading to an increase in the number of Afghans risking their lives to cross the Channel.

“The government must scrap its anti-refugee laws, build an accessible, workable and compassionate asylum system, and welcome at least 30,000 people a year through its global resettlement scheme.”