ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s diplomatic mission in Libya said Sunday it had located nine Iraqi Kurdish migrants and begun procedures to repatriate them voluntarily to their families in the Kurdistan Region.
Ahmed al-Sahhaf, chargé d’affaires at the Iraqi embassy in Libya, said the nine had entered Libya irregularly and that the mission had begun procedures to verify their Iraqi nationality ahead of their return.
“We have conducted the necessary medical examinations for the migrants to ensure their well-being, and we continue to communicate with their families to check on the migrants and reassure the families regarding their safety,” Sahhaf told Iraqi state media.
The embassy has also issued the nine temporary travel documents to facilitate their return to Iraq, he said.
The development comes amid continued uncertainty over other Kurdish migrants missing in Libya or during attempts to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
Ten Kurdish migrants who left Libya in August were reported missing, while their families later rejected reports that they had drowned, saying they had received information suggesting the youths could still be alive and detained in Libya.
Rudaw previously reported that the 10 were part of a group of 18 people who reportedly departed Libya by boat in early August, with the other eight identified by a family representative as Afghan nationals.
Earlier in September, 33 Kurdish migrants who had been detained in Libya were repatriated to the Kurdistan Region.
More than 500 migrants have been repatriated from Libya to the Kurdistan Region since 2015, the majority from Sulaimani province’s Raparin administration, according to the local Directorate of Migration, Displaced and Crisis Response.
Earlier in September, 33 young Kurdish migrants who had been detained in Libya were repatriated to the Kurdistan Region.
Pascal Reyntjens, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq, told Rudaw on Saturday that his office was coordinating with IOM Libya, Libyan authorities and the country’s prosecutor general to identify Kurdish and Iraqi migrants reported dead or missing in Mediterranean crossings.
