Darbandikhan sports clubs, cafés fall silent as youth emigrate
DARBANDIKHAN, Kurdistan Region - The sports halls and cafés that once rang with shouts and laughter are falling silent in Darbandikhan, a town in southern Sulaimani province that, like many other areas of the Kurdistan Region, has seen large numbers of its youth taking risky journeys to emigrate to Europe.
Darbandikhan’s sports club lost six players this year and more than 20 players from its amateur teams have left for Europe, according to club vice president Abdullah Mohammed.
“Players from different teams of the club have emigrated including basketball, volleyball, and martial art teams,” he said. “Definitely, we’re worried that other players may leave. As for the fans, they don't attend as much as they used to.”
In the first ten months of the year, about 37,000 people have left Iraq and the Kurdistan Region via irregular routes, according to the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs. Thousands have gotten caught in a standoff between Belarus and the European Union, which accuses Minsk of using migrants as “weapons” in a dispute over sanctions imposed by the EU in response to a crackdown on protests after Belarus’ contested presidential election last year. Earlier this summer, Kurdish migrants were stuck in camps in Lithuania. Nearly 8,000 are now stranded on the Belarus-Poland border, according to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) figures. Kurdish migrants have also gotten stranded in Syria and Libya in recent months.
They make the costly and often dangerous journeys in search of better opportunities that they feel are not available at home where there is unemployment, corruption, and political instability.
Like the sports grounds, Darbandikhan’s cafés are also empty.
“In the past, the café was packed with customers day and night,” said Rawand Luqman who owns one of the town’s most popular spots where people would gather to hang out and smoke shisha. “Currently, there are only seven to eight of them, which is a low number for the café. Last year at this time, we used to have so many customers that we ran out of chairs and tables.”
“A lot of people, including my friends, in Darbandikhan, have emigrated to Europe through Belarus,” he added.
Iraq has begun registering its nationals on the Poland-Belarus border who want to return home and the first repatriation flight will take off on Thursday.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said he is “deeply concerned” about the situation of the migrants stranded on the cold border and is working with allies to end the crisis, describing the migrants' wellbeing as a “shared responsibility.”
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
Darbandikhan’s sports club lost six players this year and more than 20 players from its amateur teams have left for Europe, according to club vice president Abdullah Mohammed.
“Players from different teams of the club have emigrated including basketball, volleyball, and martial art teams,” he said. “Definitely, we’re worried that other players may leave. As for the fans, they don't attend as much as they used to.”
In the first ten months of the year, about 37,000 people have left Iraq and the Kurdistan Region via irregular routes, according to the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs. Thousands have gotten caught in a standoff between Belarus and the European Union, which accuses Minsk of using migrants as “weapons” in a dispute over sanctions imposed by the EU in response to a crackdown on protests after Belarus’ contested presidential election last year. Earlier this summer, Kurdish migrants were stuck in camps in Lithuania. Nearly 8,000 are now stranded on the Belarus-Poland border, according to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) figures. Kurdish migrants have also gotten stranded in Syria and Libya in recent months.
They make the costly and often dangerous journeys in search of better opportunities that they feel are not available at home where there is unemployment, corruption, and political instability.
Like the sports grounds, Darbandikhan’s cafés are also empty.
“In the past, the café was packed with customers day and night,” said Rawand Luqman who owns one of the town’s most popular spots where people would gather to hang out and smoke shisha. “Currently, there are only seven to eight of them, which is a low number for the café. Last year at this time, we used to have so many customers that we ran out of chairs and tables.”
“A lot of people, including my friends, in Darbandikhan, have emigrated to Europe through Belarus,” he added.
Iraq has begun registering its nationals on the Poland-Belarus border who want to return home and the first repatriation flight will take off on Thursday.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said he is “deeply concerned” about the situation of the migrants stranded on the cold border and is working with allies to end the crisis, describing the migrants' wellbeing as a “shared responsibility.”
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed