ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Kurdistan Region residents returning from Iran have allegedly opted to smuggling to avoid the 14-day quarantine amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to security officials (Asayesh) in Sulaimani province.
Iran has become the Middle East epicenter of the outbreak of the virus, with the latest official figures standing at 245 infections and 26 deaths.
Iraq has so far confirmed 6 cases of coronavirus, 5 of whom were among Iraqis who had recently visited Iran.
Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have closed borders with Iran. Iraqi citizens are not allowed to travel to Iran, and any returnee will have to undergo 14 days in quarantine to prevent further spread of the virus.
Some have decided to go under the radar to avoid self-isolation in a move that could seriously endanger public health when the Region so far has no confirmed cases of coronavirus.
A source from the border village of Zali,who spoke to Rudaw on the condition of anonymity, says smugglers charge $100 per person to get across the border.
Security officials in Raparin, Ranya appealed to the public on Thursday to help them find individuals who have avoided quarantine, calling on locals to be “alert” for returnees in the area.
“After the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran, some people came back to the Kurdistan Region from Iran through smuggler routes, and that poses a danger to the people because there have been no medical tests run on them,” Colonel Mohammed Fazel, head of media and relations department of Raparin Asayesh Directorate, told Rudaw on Thursday.
Col. Fazel further clarified to Rudaw that some students who had been studying in Iran came back through the same routes.
“We interrogated them and undertook legal measures,” he said, adding that anyone who smuggles themselves into the region will be punished.
Doctor Hiwa Mohammed, Director General of Raparin’s Health Department also confirmed the news of residents smuggling their way back home.
“In the past four days, about 50 people, who had come back through both legal and smuggling methods from Iran to the Kurdistan Region, are quarantined and had medical checks and are under our committee’s monitoring in two places in Qaladize,” Mohammed told Rudaw.
“In the course of the past 24 hours, 1,734 people have returned from Iran to the Kurdistan Region. All of them are being quarantined at 15 different locations,” KRG’s health minister Dr Saman Barzinji told reporters on Wednesday.
Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Interior Rebar Ahmed in the Wednesday press conference with the Minister of Health admitted that over 500 of the Region’s residents have cheated their way back into the Region through federal checkpoints.
Ahmed said he had obtained “very accurate statistics” that 536 of the Region’s residents had come back to Iraq through Iraqi government-controlled border crossings with Iran, and then they made their way back into the Region through checkpoints installed between the Region and the rest of Iraq.
The Kurdistan Region controls three official border crossings with Iran, and a number of smaller unofficial ones. Ahmed had on Wednesday criticized Baghdad for failing to quickly quarantine Iraqis returning from Iran.
“We have their full name, address, and even their phone numbers. We have distributed the data to Governors, heads of independent administrations and have asked to pay attention to it to call these citizens to inquire where they are, what their health condition is,” said the minister.
Ahmed also admitted to the smuggling cases.
“From here we call on all these beloved citizens who have returned through this method, or those who have smuggled their way back into the Kurdistan Region…for the sake of their interests, health, of their relatives, and of every individual of this Region, to give themselves up to medical teams as soon as possible to undergo checks and the measures being implemented in the Kurdistan Region,” Ahmed said.
Translation and additional reporting by Mohammed Rwanduzy
