ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Six Kurdish men who attempted to reach Europe on the dangerous migrant trail were betrayed by their smugglers in Istanbul and forced to film a video pretending they were in France in order to extort money from their families in the Kurdistan Region.
Five of the men, aged between 17 and 20, are from Raniya city and one is from Sulaimani.
Instead of taking the young migrants to Europe, their smugglers handed them over to Turkish criminals in Istanbul.
According to their families, the men were only able to escape their captors after one of them threw himself out of a window, alerting authorities.
“We were in touch with a smuggler in Erbil for ten days in order to send our sons to Turkey and from there to France,” Ibrahim Maulood, the father of one of the young men, told Rudaw.
“He promised that he would guarantee their arrival to their destination. We agreed to pay them the money once they arrived in France. We agreed to pay $9,300 for each one of them and an additional $600 for flight tickets and visa.”
“Two days before Eid al-Adha, our son set off from Erbil airport. When they arrived in Turkey, they informed us they were there and that the smugglers had booked them a hotel,” Maulood added.
“One night my son called me saying the smugglers had notified them to be prepared to set off. At 10.30, my son called me back saying ‘we are moving and when we arrived there, I will call you’.”
Three days passed without word.
Then the smugglers called the families telling them their sons were in France and that they would soon send a video showing they had arrived safely.
“When he [the smuggler] sent the video to us we saw them sitting in a room and my son was speaking, saying ‘we all arrived in France, no worries’.”
“We have arrived in Lyon, France. We came here by a truck. And thanks be to God, as you see, we have no problem and are safe,” Maulood’s son tells the camera, held by one of their captors.
“We later understood the video was fake and they had deceived us and they had claimed to be in France under pressure and threats, because once they sent the video the smugglers demanded money from us,” said Maulood.
Two days after the smugglers contacted the families, one of the young men called saying “please reach out to us, we are still in Istanbul. The smugglers handed us over and sold us out to the mafias. We were imprisoned in a room and they constantly tortured us. And we did not eat anything all these days.”
Maulood said the young men only escaped after one of them jumped out of a window to alert authorities.
“He jumped from the fifth floor of the building. His limbs and vertebra have broken,” he said.
“The mafias all fled, taking their mobile phones, money, and passports with them.”
Rudaw understands the young men are now in police custody.
Roj Aziz, the Iraqi Migration Federation representative in Istanbul, told Rudaw the Kurdish migrants will be deported to the Kurdistan Region in the next two days.
The injured man, who is from Sulaimani, remains in hospital, Aziz added.
Five of the men, aged between 17 and 20, are from Raniya city and one is from Sulaimani.
Instead of taking the young migrants to Europe, their smugglers handed them over to Turkish criminals in Istanbul.
According to their families, the men were only able to escape their captors after one of them threw himself out of a window, alerting authorities.
“We were in touch with a smuggler in Erbil for ten days in order to send our sons to Turkey and from there to France,” Ibrahim Maulood, the father of one of the young men, told Rudaw.
“He promised that he would guarantee their arrival to their destination. We agreed to pay them the money once they arrived in France. We agreed to pay $9,300 for each one of them and an additional $600 for flight tickets and visa.”
“Two days before Eid al-Adha, our son set off from Erbil airport. When they arrived in Turkey, they informed us they were there and that the smugglers had booked them a hotel,” Maulood added.
“One night my son called me saying the smugglers had notified them to be prepared to set off. At 10.30, my son called me back saying ‘we are moving and when we arrived there, I will call you’.”
Three days passed without word.
Then the smugglers called the families telling them their sons were in France and that they would soon send a video showing they had arrived safely.
“When he [the smuggler] sent the video to us we saw them sitting in a room and my son was speaking, saying ‘we all arrived in France, no worries’.”
The short video clip, given to Rudaw by the families, shows the men sitting around a nondescript room. Maulood’s son insists they are safe. Their body language, however, suggests something is amiss.
“We have arrived in Lyon, France. We came here by a truck. And thanks be to God, as you see, we have no problem and are safe,” Maulood’s son tells the camera, held by one of their captors.
The young Kurdish migrants were forced to tell their families they had safely arrived in France. Rudaw video
The families soon learned the video was staged.
“We later understood the video was fake and they had deceived us and they had claimed to be in France under pressure and threats, because once they sent the video the smugglers demanded money from us,” said Maulood.
Two days after the smugglers contacted the families, one of the young men called saying “please reach out to us, we are still in Istanbul. The smugglers handed us over and sold us out to the mafias. We were imprisoned in a room and they constantly tortured us. And we did not eat anything all these days.”
Maulood said the young men only escaped after one of them jumped out of a window to alert authorities.
“He jumped from the fifth floor of the building. His limbs and vertebra have broken,” he said.
“The mafias all fled, taking their mobile phones, money, and passports with them.”
Rudaw understands the young men are now in police custody.
Roj Aziz, the Iraqi Migration Federation representative in Istanbul, told Rudaw the Kurdish migrants will be deported to the Kurdistan Region in the next two days.
The injured man, who is from Sulaimani, remains in hospital, Aziz added.
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