An Iraqi Christian leader has told the BBC it is hard to convince members of his community to stay in Iraq, but that he is working to keep them there.
“There is no one reason for a family to stay. I cannot convince them unless we do something for them,” the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Irbil, Bashar Matti Warda, told the BBC Hardtalk programme’s Stephen Sackur.
Archbishop Warda said he “hated” the calls for “tolerance“ of religious minorities from the wider community in predominantly Muslim Iraq, where Christians have been targeted by Islamist militants and numbers have dwindled from about 1.4 million in 2003 to as few as 250,000.
“I keep telling them, please don’t use this word. Speak about co-existence, speak about respect.”
Watch the interview in full on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 July on BBC World News or watch again on BBC iPlayer (UK only)
