ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A young girl has been reunited with her family in the Kurdistan Region's Raniya town six months after being separated from her parents in Russia's Republic of Dagestan. Mina and her parents were put in jail in Dagestan while trying to reach Europe. Little Mina was taken to a child care centre due to her small age. Ten days later, the shelter's authorities called Mina's uncle and informed him that she was with them. Mina, who is four years old, is now back in Raniya where she lives with her grandparents. She only speaks Russian and does not understand Kurdish at all. "They had initially gone to Iran and then to Azerbaijan. From there, they had gone to the borders of Russia without a visa. Their smugglers had apparently told them that they would take them to Russia on a visa, but it was not the case. They had been forced to go on foot. Right at the border [of Dagestan], they were arrested [six months ago]. In the first city [of Dagestan] the child had been separated from her parents," Abdulwaheed Othman, Mina's uncle, told Rudaw's Abubakir Ismail of the family's journey. Mina's grandparents are trying to teach her Kurdish or at least help her remember Kurdish words so they can easily communicate with her. "I am calling on the authorities to help free Mina's parents so she could reunite with them. It has been six months since Mina was separated from her parents. Her uncle went there and brought her back home. He made a lot of efforts to make it there, to bring back Mina," Mahbooba Hamza, Mina's grandmother said. Thousands of people, many of them Iraqi Kurds, with the help of Kurdish smugglers, every year trek the dangerous journey hoping to reach Western Europe in search of jobs and opportunities they feel they cannot access at home where unemployment is high and political tensions, corruption, and instability leave them with little hope for their future. According to data from the association of the returned migrants from Europe, towards the end of 2022 and around the beginning of 2023, 19,200 people left the Kurdistan Region for Europe. Of this number 2,300 of them are from Raniya and its surrounding areas.
