BY SETARREH MASSIHZADEGAN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Magdi is different from the other four million Iraqi refugees who have been displaced since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

That he has survived a kidnapping in which he was left for dead may not make him distinct. Magdi was born in Egypt and has returned there with his family. But it is the fact that his children attend Egyptian public school that he and his friends consider miraculous.

For Iraqis who have fled their war-ridden country to seek a secure life in Egypt, accessing education for their children is of high priority. An estimated 80,000 to 150,000 Iraqis now reside in Egypt, but the influx until recently was so persistent that accurate numbers are hard to come by. Most put their children in costly private schools because as far as they know, public schools are off limits to them.

"He made impossible things by putting them into government schools," Rafi said in English of his friend Magdi, who spent six months acquiring the paperwork to prove that his two young children were also Egyptian.

"He got permission from the (education) minister himself," another friend, Ahmad, added, also speaking in English.