41 Kurdish migrants to be repatriated from Libya: Iraqi embassy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's diplomatic mission in Libya said Wednesday they had readied credentials for a total of 41 migrants - all from the Kurdistan Region  - ahead of their repatriation from the country. They had entered the north African country to use its waterways to illegally move to Europe.

 

"We have completed the procedures for returning 41 migrants who entered Libya illegally," Ahmed al-Sahaf, chargé d'affaires at the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Tripoli, told Rudaw. "We have repatriated 68 migrants so far."

 

Sahaf said all the migrants are from the Kurdistan Region.

 

The issue of illegal migration is "a humanitarian and national issue, not political," he said. noting they work in a "complex environment and cooperates in every way with the official authorities in Tripoli to support the voluntary return of migrants."

 

He detailed they provide "comprehensive humanitarian support, including food, treatment, and sometimes housing, to migrants."

 

The Iraqi diplomatic mission in Libya continues to "adhere to the directives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad regarding voluntary return and will preserve the migrants' data," Sahaf explained.

 

Last week, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw that more than 80 migrants from the Kurdistan Region had been detained by different groups in Libya while attempting to reach Europe.

 

A group of 21 migrants is being held by one group in Libya, while “the other 60 citizens are being detained by a different group” in the same country, said Muthanna Ameen, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

 

In early July, Rudaw reported about the rising number of Kurdish youth from the Raparin area opting for the Libya-Italy sea route to reach Europe. The dangerous path has become increasingly popular due to tighter border restrictions and longer wait times along the traditional Turkey-Greece route.

 

Bakr Ali, head of the Association for Repatriated Refugees (ARR), has previously said that the Libya-Italy crossing is much shorter - taking around eight hours compared to up to 72 hours from Greece.

 

“Smugglers charge nearly $17,000 per person,” Ali then said, adding that “a significant portion of that money is paid to Libyan militias who control the coast.”

 

The Kurdistan Region has seen repeated waves of youth migration over the past decade, largely driven by economic hardship and the search for better opportunities abroad.