Kurdistan Region-Rojava border crossing to close: Kurdish authorities

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The border crossing between the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), or Rojava, and the Kurdistan Region will be closed down on Tuesday, according to a statement from Rojava authorities.

The NES-controlled Semalka border crossing administration, in a statement on their Facebook page late on Monday, said that the crossing will be “completely closed tomorrow to all incoming and outgoing travellers as well as all humanitarian organizations and journalists.”

It is unclear how long the closure will last.

In a statement late on Tuesday, authorities from the Semalka crossing said the closure will not affected the UN or humanitarian organisations.  

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) controls the other side of the crossing, Fishkhabur. 

The Semalka administration claimed that Fishkhabur officials have asked travellers to fill out a form containing all information about them. 

“This is a pure intelligence form,” it said in the Monday statement. 

It also complained that emergency cases, such as people seeking medical treatment, will have to wait for two days to receive entry permission from the KRG. 

Home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, Rojava has mainly depended on the Semalka border crossing, connecting Rojava with the Kurdistan Region, for aid deliveries. 

The crossing connects the town of Semalka in al-Malikiya (Derik) with the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

The NES-held border crossing later edited the statement on Facebook, removing the part which talks about the closure of the crossing.

They called on the KRG to stop their “inhumane and irresponsible” decisions regarding permission requirements. 

Some people posted videos on social media, saying the crossing remains open as of Tuesday afternoon. 

Rudaw English reached out to officials from both sides of the border but they were not available for comment.

The border between the two sides was closed by the KRG due to political rifts with the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Rojava, but it was permanently opened in 2016 in order to allow humanitarian goods, medicine, and food to cross the border. 

Following that, the border crossing has been intermittently closed and opened due to Turkish shelling and then the coronavirus pandemic.   

Delivering aid to Rojava is already difficult. Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement on June 10, warned of catastrophic consequences if Russia vetoes the reauthorization of the only UN aid corridor into northern Syria next month, and urged the United Nations Security Council to “reauthorize full cross-border operations into the region and authorize a resumption of aid flows from Iraq.” 

The United Nations used to deliver aid through al-Yarubiyah border crossing with Rabia sub-district in Nineveh Province between 2018 and 2020. It was later de-authorized in January 2020 by the UN Security Council. 

“Overall, the [humanitarian] situation has worsened since the removal of the Yarubiyah authorized border crossing in January of last year,” Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator said in April. 

Note: This piece has been updated to include the statement from Rojava's authorities.