ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has called on European countries and Belarus to uphold their obligations under international law towards the Kurdish migrants stuck in their countries as he defends the record of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on clamping down on smuggling networks and trying to create more jobs in the semi-autonomous region by strengthening the private sector.
“Over the past month, the flight of Kurdish migrants to Europe and the desperate circumstances they have confronted in the frozen forests of Belarus and on the shores of Dunkirk have been horrifying,” Barzani wrote in an opinion piece for French newspaper Le Monde published on Monday night. “In recent days the tragedy in the English Channel has intensified our heartbreak. The deaths of 27 people - mostly Kurds from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq - who drowned in freezing waters far from home should never have happened.”
The two known survivors of the English Channel boat incident on November 24 have both told Rudaw that their dinghy had made it to British waters and that they made calls to British authorities to come to their rescue before disaster struck and they were pushed back to French waters.
“We expect answers from our British friends about whether the vessel that sank was in English waters when distress calls were first made. We also hope for full cooperation from our partners in France. This must never be allowed to happen again,” Barzani said.
The exodus of the Kurds towards Europe and North America from the Kurdistan region in Iraq has been ongoing since the 1980s when many Kurdish political activists found refuge in the west fleeing the genocidal policies of the Saddam Hussein regime which was supported throughout the 80s by most European countries including France and the United Kingdom.
But in recent months, several thousand Kurds have left the Kurdistan region with the aid of a large network of smugglers and travel agents to migrate to Europe via Belarus where most of them have been stuck for weeks in freezing conditions. Iraq has suspended the work of Belarusian missions in Baghdad and Erbil and stopped flights to Minsk from Iraqi airports, although a migrant describing his journey to the UK to Rudaw explained how he flew to Minsk via Dubai.
“We have taken firm steps to stop our people from embarking on journeys that have been facilitated by political leaders in cohorts with people smugglers and criminal gangs. Travel agents who have aided the exodus have been arrested and will be prosecuted,” Barzani wrote. “The carte blanche granting of visas has been stopped. And we will help anyone who wants to return to Iraqi Kurdistan. So far, nearly 2,000 citizens have returned, many carrying a message that what was sold to them as a quest for betterment was instead a death trap - and that no-one else should try to follow them.”
According to Barzani, the ongoing conflict in the Kurdistan region between the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stationed along the border and the Turkish army has caused instability in these areas, another factor that has forced people to be displaced in the region.
The PKK has been in conflict with the Turkish army since the early 1980s but in recent years the Turkish army has deployed thousands of troops to the border area inside the Kurdistan region, setting up bases and outposts and carrying out a large air campaign which has killed and wounded dozens of civilians in the border areas.
Barzani also said that during his two years in office as the prime minister he has tried to put the Kurdistan economy on a “new footing” to make it more “viable” and “resilient” despite several shocks including the war with Islamic State (ISIS), the coronavirus pandemic, the never ending disputes with Baghdad and corruption in the Region.
“My administration has made determined steps to clamp down on corruption, drive efficiencies, establish competitiveness, empower ministries and implement global best practice standards,” he wrote, describing the Kurdistan Region as a society that looks after one another and, as one of the safest regions in the Middle East, “a sanctuary for nearly one million displaced individuals souls from across the region - many fleeing genuine persecution - as well as 100,000 job seekers from neighbouring countries.”
Acknowledging that many Kurds in the Region are prosperous, particularly compared to their neighbours, Barzani did nonetheless recognise the desire for a better life with greater opportunities among those attempting to reach Europe; a key motive that migrants have repeatedly told reporters.
“Some of our citizens have been unemployed long term despite being highly qualified. This must change. We need to create jobs for them. To these people, I say to you - you will not find support on faux migrant routes manufactured by puppet masters who do not have your interests at heart,” he wrote, stressing that opportunities exist at home, rather than in the “fields and beaches of foreign lands,” and that the KRG will deliver the necessary reforms in the Region.
Addressing European leaders, Barzani acknowledged the crisis caused by the arrival of large numbers of migrants on their soil and pledged to collaborate in good faith, beginning with discussions in Brussels this week. He also called for greater support from Europe to address the economic reasons behind the decision of so many migrants “to knock on European doors,” by supporting the Region’s economic reforms.
“We also expect our international partners to do more to safeguard our people”, Barzani wrote. “Poland and Belarus in particular must uphold their obligations to care for those in desperate need.”
Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of an Iraqi Kurdish woman on Friday afer she suffered hypothermia and a miscarriage while crossing the Belarus-Poland border last month.
Last week the European Commission proposed emergency measures that would allow Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to derogate from asylum protections, meaning expanded detention, border procedures, delays in registering asylum appeals, and reduced reception conditions for migrants attempting to cross their borders.
The British parliament is today debating new proposed legislation, the Borders and Nationality Bill, seeking to criminalise people who enter the UK through irregular means or without pre-authorisation, and would imprison them.
Responding to questions about calls made from the migrant crossing boat in the English Channel last week, Dan O’Mahoney, the Home Office’s Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, told the Joint Committee on Human Rights that he couldn’t say with any certainty whether UK authorities definitely received a call from that boat or not, and that “it may never be possible to say with absolute accuracy whether that boat was in UK waters or French waters prior to that.”
According to the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs, over 633,000 people from Kurdistan Region and Iraq have migrated to European countries in the past seven years.
