Kurdish official responds to powerful Iraqi politician on poverty claim

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official on Sunday hit back against a claim by Shiite leader Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iran-aligned Asaib Ahl al-Haq, that the Kurdistan Region suffers from more poverty than other parts of Iraq, pointing to data showing the opposite in comparison to federal Iraq.

“To Mr. Qais al-Khazali, in a statement of yours, you mentioned that poverty and unemployment in the Kurdistan Region are greater than in the other provinces of Iraq! I would like to point out that your information is incorrect and not based on scientific facts,” Jotiar Adil, head of the KRG’s Department of Media and Information, said on X.

He was responding to Khazali, who in a Saturday speech said that “the poverty and lack of job opportunities that exist in the Kurdistan Region is greater than what exists in the central, southern, and western areas [of Iraq].”

Khazali argued that most migrants from Iraq are from the Kurdistan Region, citing “official statistics” indicating that over 90 percent of Iraqis who immigrate abroad are from the Region, without referencing a specific source.

Meanwhile, Adil cited a 2024 study by Iraq’s statistics authority in his defense, which “shows that the poverty line in the central and southern provinces reached 17.5 percent, compared to the provinces of the region, which did not exceed 8.6 percent.”

Khazali’s claim comes as Kurdistan Region employees have yet to receive their May salaries. In late May, the Iraqi finance ministry said it was “unable” to continue financing the Region, accusing Erbil of exceeding its 12.67 percent share of the federal budget set for 2025. Meanwhile, public servants in other Iraqi provinces were paid weeks earlier.

The standoff has triggered repeated exchanges between Erbil and Baghdad, with each side blaming the other for violating the constitution and the federal budget law.

The salary crisis and its economic impact are widely seen as major drivers of emigration from the Kurdistan Region

Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, labeled Khazali's remarks as "foolish."

While unofficial data suggest that migration out of Iraq is largely from the Kurdistan Region, unemployment rates between the Region and the rest of Iraq remain similar, though the Region performs significantly better in terms of poverty levels.

According to the Kurdistan Region Statistics Office (KRSO), unemployment in the Region was 16.5 percent in 2021. In comparison, the International Labour Organization reported Iraq’s unemployment rate at 16.2 percent in 2021 and 15.5 percent in 2024.

In March, Abubakir Ali, head of the Kurdistan Region Refugee Association, told Rudaw that migration from the Region has declined since 2023.

In late February, Iraq announced the final results of the country’s first general population census in 37 years, which reported Iraq’s population had reached 46.1 million.

The census, conducted in November, showed a nationwide decrease in poverty, from 20.5 percent in 2018 to 17.5 percent in 2024. However, it also found slight increases in poverty in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani and Erbil provinces - from four to eight percent and from 6.7 to 7.1 percent, respectively.

In Iraq, the southern Muthanna province remains the poorest, despite a decline in its poverty rate from 52 percent to 40 percent. It is followed by Babil with 37 percent. Significant decreases were recorded in southwestern provinces such as Dhi Qar, Diwaniyah, and Maysan. In western Nineveh, poverty dropped dramatically from over 50 percent to around 15 percent.