ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will repatriate 33 young people from the Kurdistan Region who were stranded in Libya after attempting to migrate irregularly to Western countries, Erbil's interior ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement that the move followed reports of a group of citizens from the Region going missing in Libya, prompting Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to instruct the interior ministry and Erbil's foreign relations department to take "urgent and necessary measures" to locate, rescue, and repatriate the individuals.
"All procedures regarding these 33 citizens have been completed, and they will be returned to the Kurdistan Region next week," the statement noted.
The repatriation comes amid continued attempts by young people from the Kurdistan Region to reach Europe through Libya and across the Mediterranean, driven in part by unemployment, economic hardship and the search for better opportunities.
The announcement follows recent remarks by Iraq’s chargé d'affaires in Libya, Ahmed al-Sahhaf, who told Rudaw in mid-August that 36 migrants from the Kurdistan Region had been located in Libya and were expected to be returned to Iraq.
The Iraqi diplomat said the migrants were being held at a shelter and counter-illegal migration center in Tripoli and that Baghdad’s embassy had coordinated with Libyan authorities to arrange their return after issuing temporary passports to facilitate the process.
Erbil’s interior ministry did not provide details on how the 33 migrants reached Libya or when they were located, but noted that some of them had spent eight months in prison and faced a continuous risk to their lives.
The ministry further urged young people and their families to avoid irregular migration routes, warning that “this type of migration not only poses a risk to their lives but also leads to legal violations in other countries followed by severe legal accountability.”
"To date, the Kurdistan Regional Government has been able to rescue 302 illegal migrants from various situations and return them to the Kurdistan Region," the statement added.
Meanwhile, Sahhaf in mid-August told Rudaw that some 352 citizens had also been repatriated from Libya since December 2023.
