Iraq repatriates 11 migrants from Libya: Diplomat

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq repatriated 11 migrants from Libya on Thursday, an Iraqi diplomat said, as the country's embassy in Tripoli began DNA testing procedures to identify 18 bodies suspected to be those of Iraqi nationals.

"The journey of the 11 migrants began from Mitiga airport in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, heading to Erbil airport via Turkey," Ahmed al-Sahaf, charge d'affaires of the Iraqi embassy in Libya, told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA), noting that "the total number of migrants repatriated by the embassy in the two years since its reopening in Tripoli has reached 402 migrants as of today."

He added that "the embassy provides humanitarian, service, consular, and medical support to migrants in coordination with Iraqi national agencies and ministries, as well as the ministry of interior and the department of foreign relations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq."

The repatriation comes amid uncertainty over the fate of Kurdish migrants who have gone missing in Libya or while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Ten Kurdish migrants who departed Libya by boat in early August were reported missing. Their families later rejected reports that they had drowned, saying they had received information suggesting the migrants could still be alive and held in detention in Libya.

The 10 were among a group of 18 people who reportedly left Libya by boat, with a family representative identifying the other eight as Afghan nationals.

"The embassy has initiated DNA testing procedures for 18 bodies suspected to be of Iraqi nationality," Sahaf stated, noting that "this was done in coordination with the Libyan Red Crescent."

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 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

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