Kurdistan
Rudaw's Ranj Sangawi hosts officials and citizens from Sulaimani province's Raparin administration for a discussion on mass migration on September 3, 2023. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The mass migration of Kurdistan Region youths has surged in recent years, with a large number of the migrants coming from Sulaimani province’s Raparin administration. Officials from the administration have blamed a lack of services and job opportunities for the mass exodus.
“Lack of job opportunities is the main cause for the migration of the young people of Raparin. In the Raparin administration we have proposed tens of projects to creat more job opportunities, but the decision makers of the Kurdistan Region’s economic plan,” Mala Qader Yassin, deputy head of the Raparin administration, told Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi on Sunday.
He stressed that a major section of the young migrants are college graduates who either cannot find jobs, or work on minimum wage.
“Young people in Raparin need political party backing even for a construction worker job, where instead of working eight hours they work 10 to 12 hours a day and have no safety insurance,” said Kastro Maruf, head of the Sulaimani provincial council’s executive and finance committee, adding that the workers get paid somewhere between 150,000 IQD to 300,000 IQD [100 to 200 dollars] per month.
“Raparin has passed the youth migration stage and is now at family migration,” Maruf added.
Yassin said that from 2006 to 2009, many of Raparin’s migrants migrated back to the Kurdistan Region due to the economic and political stability the Region was experiencing, but that is no longer the case.
The Raparin deputy head called on the government to oblige businesspeople to include the administrations in their projects as well, instead of solely focusing on the provinces. He decried that even when businesspeople carry out projects in Raparin, corrupt officials will force them to hire people based on nepotism.
Maruf claimed that Raparin’s agricultural sector alone is “enough to make the Kurdistan Region self-sufficient.”
Scores of people, mainly youth, from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq take to smuggling routes on a daily basis out of desperation, in hopes of escaping endless crises in the country, including high unemployment, political instability, and corruption.
“The young people of Raparin cannot even breathe anymore,” said Ahmed Hassan, head of the Raparin Youth Organization, “there are young people working seven hours a day at a butcher shop for 200,000 IQD [per month].”
“How are they supposed to make a living like that? How can they build a future based on that and get married?” he lamented.
The mass migration has also created a gender imbalance in Raparin. Hassan said that they had conducted a survey at the Qaladze preparatory school last year which showed that the school only had 70 male students out of 350 total, attributing the low number of male students to the fact that many boys around that age are choosing to migrate out of the country.
Raparin has around 30 businesses that offer assistance in obtaining visas, and according to them, around 500 young people apply for Turkish visas every day. The companies also act as intermediaries between migrants and smugglers.
Bakir Ali, head of the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, said that the Raparin administration holds the lion’s share of the number of Kurdistan Region migrants over the past nine years, accounting for more than 34,000 out of the Region’s 153,600 migrants during that period.
Over 3,200 people migrated from Raparin in 2022, and nearly 3,000 more have migrated since the start of the year, according to Ali. The age of the migrants ranges from 16 years old to over 50, most of which migrate after obtaining Poland, Hungary, or Bosnia and Herzegovina visas, he added.
The Kurdistan Region, often called a safe haven within Iraq, is facing crises of its own - high unemployment, corruption, political instability, and an economic downturn during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Kurdish government has acknowledged the existence of systemic problems and financial hardships but says it is working to address these issues.
Over 750,000 people have migrated out of Iraq since 2015, according to data from the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka), also recording at least 319 migrant deaths during that period, and adding that the whereabouts of 236 others remain unknown.
According to data from the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, more than 550 migrants have either drowned or went missing over the past nine years, out of which over 150 are from Raparin administration.
“Lack of job opportunities is the main cause for the migration of the young people of Raparin. In the Raparin administration we have proposed tens of projects to creat more job opportunities, but the decision makers of the Kurdistan Region’s economic plan,” Mala Qader Yassin, deputy head of the Raparin administration, told Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi on Sunday.
He stressed that a major section of the young migrants are college graduates who either cannot find jobs, or work on minimum wage.
“Young people in Raparin need political party backing even for a construction worker job, where instead of working eight hours they work 10 to 12 hours a day and have no safety insurance,” said Kastro Maruf, head of the Sulaimani provincial council’s executive and finance committee, adding that the workers get paid somewhere between 150,000 IQD to 300,000 IQD [100 to 200 dollars] per month.
“Raparin has passed the youth migration stage and is now at family migration,” Maruf added.
Yassin said that from 2006 to 2009, many of Raparin’s migrants migrated back to the Kurdistan Region due to the economic and political stability the Region was experiencing, but that is no longer the case.
The Raparin deputy head called on the government to oblige businesspeople to include the administrations in their projects as well, instead of solely focusing on the provinces. He decried that even when businesspeople carry out projects in Raparin, corrupt officials will force them to hire people based on nepotism.
Maruf claimed that Raparin’s agricultural sector alone is “enough to make the Kurdistan Region self-sufficient.”
Scores of people, mainly youth, from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq take to smuggling routes on a daily basis out of desperation, in hopes of escaping endless crises in the country, including high unemployment, political instability, and corruption.
“The young people of Raparin cannot even breathe anymore,” said Ahmed Hassan, head of the Raparin Youth Organization, “there are young people working seven hours a day at a butcher shop for 200,000 IQD [per month].”
“How are they supposed to make a living like that? How can they build a future based on that and get married?” he lamented.
The mass migration has also created a gender imbalance in Raparin. Hassan said that they had conducted a survey at the Qaladze preparatory school last year which showed that the school only had 70 male students out of 350 total, attributing the low number of male students to the fact that many boys around that age are choosing to migrate out of the country.
Raparin has around 30 businesses that offer assistance in obtaining visas, and according to them, around 500 young people apply for Turkish visas every day. The companies also act as intermediaries between migrants and smugglers.
Bakir Ali, head of the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, said that the Raparin administration holds the lion’s share of the number of Kurdistan Region migrants over the past nine years, accounting for more than 34,000 out of the Region’s 153,600 migrants during that period.
Over 3,200 people migrated from Raparin in 2022, and nearly 3,000 more have migrated since the start of the year, according to Ali. The age of the migrants ranges from 16 years old to over 50, most of which migrate after obtaining Poland, Hungary, or Bosnia and Herzegovina visas, he added.
The Kurdistan Region, often called a safe haven within Iraq, is facing crises of its own - high unemployment, corruption, political instability, and an economic downturn during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Kurdish government has acknowledged the existence of systemic problems and financial hardships but says it is working to address these issues.
Over 750,000 people have migrated out of Iraq since 2015, according to data from the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka), also recording at least 319 migrant deaths during that period, and adding that the whereabouts of 236 others remain unknown.
According to data from the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, more than 550 migrants have either drowned or went missing over the past nine years, out of which over 150 are from Raparin administration.
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