ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Turkish consulate in Erbil has tightened travel terms for applicants in the Kurdistan region in a bid to contain what they regard as “illegal migration” to Europe through Turkish borders, Mehmet Akif, Turkey’s Consul General in Erbil told Rudaw.
The move comes days after the European countries granted Turkey a €3-billion-aid package to help Ankara manage the migration crisis including returning refugees from European countries to Ankara.
According to the Iraqi migration office in Erbil some 40,000 people from the Kurdistan region have left the country as immigrants since 2014 following ISIS advance.
“The restrictions are due to the high number of applicants who use the Turkish visa for migration purposes to Europe, often illegally,” Akif said.
Nearly a million Iraqi citizens visited Turkey in 2015 through visa applications of which an estimated 160,000 have remained in the country after the expiration date of their papers and some 90,000 migrated to European countries from Turkey, according to official data.
The Iraqi migration office says around 4,000 people from the Kurdistan region have migrated to Europe, mostly through Turkey, since January 2016.
“We have had meetings with migration organizations in Europe to look into how we can facilitate the return of the migrants and also how to help them go back to their ordinary life here in Kurdistan,” said Shakir Yaseen the manager of migration office in Erbil and added that further meetings will take place in Brussels, Belgium on March 17.
Hundreds of migrants have returned to the Kurdistan region after months of uncertainty in European refugee camps.
“If anything, life is more difficult in Germany,” said Aziz a returning migrant who did not want to use his real name. “The refugees are treated like refugees, not particularly nice. I had $7,500 with me when I left Kurdistan but returned with $400 in my pocket,” he told Rudaw.
The prolonged war with the ISIS militants across Kurdish borders and the deterioration of the oil-driven economy in the Kurdistan region sparked a new wave of migration to the West despite Kurdish authorities’ pledge to stabilize the security and fiscal deficit.
Earlier last week European leaders welcomed Ankara’s offer to take back migrants who enter Europe from Turkey in return for more economic aid, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.
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