Kurdistan’s unemployed youth pull up stakes, move to Europe

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish youth, frustrated with lack of employment prospects, are among thousands of migrants hoping to find a better life abroad by taking risky journeys that too often end in tragedy. On Thursday, a young man from Erbil died in Belarus.

“Life has become difficult here. I want to leave for good and not come back,” Mikail Kamal told Rudaw at a travel agency in Soran. He finished high school but did not gain admission into university, is unemployed, and now considering getting a flight to Belarus. 

Asked why he chose that route, Kamal said “the Turkey road is very hard because a lot of people drown daily.” Taking a route that avoids the sea “is easier,” he added. 

Thousands of migrants have tried to gain entry to European Union nations from Belarus this summer. The EU accuses Minsk of pushing migrants to their borders in protest of sanctions imposed in response to a crackdown on dissent. 

Poland declared a state of emergency on their border in late September. It has registered around 23,000 attempts to enter its territory this year, DW reported. Other migrants have tried to enter Lithuania or Latvia, where they have ended up in camps.

Mohammed Aziz Agha works at the travel agency Kamal visited. “A lot of people are migrating to Belarus,” he said. The cost is about $5,000.

This year, roughly 37,000 Iraqis have left the country by unofficial means, according to data from the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs. 

“It’s clear to everyone that in the past few years the war and conflict that faced Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, in addition to lack of basic services, lack of [salary] payments on time, lack of employment for the youth, especially university graduates, are some of the main reasons that have made Kurdistan Region citizens and Iraqis generally go to a more stable place in search of a more worthy and better life for themselves and their families, a place where there is employment and security,” Ari Jalal, the head of Lutka, told Rudaw on Friday.

Government officials acknowledge that there are flaws in the education system, contributing to students like Kamal not getting into post-secondary institutions or filling job market needs. Universities do not have enough space, Minister of Higher Education Aram Mohammed said on Thursday, responding to protests from students who were not admitted into their desired university programs. He called the situation a “catastrophe.”

The minister recently called for a dramatic overhaul of the system, saying the education students are currently receiving in Kurdistan Region is not preparing them to meet labour market needs, driving employers to look out of the Region to fill jobs.

Migrating to Europe is no easy solution. This year, ten Iraqis have died en route to Europe and 12 are still missing, according to Lutka. The latest death was on Thursday night. 

Twenty-five-year-old Gaylan Dler from Erbil travelled to Belarus on October 14 with his two brothers, sister, and brother-in-law. “My son had diabetes. He took two months’ worth of medication, but his medicine was in my son-in-law’s bag. They got separated and due to his lack of treatment, he passed away,” his father Dler Esmail told Rudaw on Friday.

Dler's two brothers wanted to take him to hospital in Poland when his health deteriorated on Thursday night, but they were picked up by Polish border guards and pushed back into Belarusian territory, the father added.

Esmail said his body is still on the border and he appealed to authorities to return his son.

Belarus’ neighbours are fortifying their borders to stop the migration.

The Polish parliament this month passed a law that grants border guards the power to push migrants back across the border, Reuters reported. Under international law it is forbidden to ban entry to asylum seekers whose lives and well-being may be in danger without examining their application for refuge. 

The decision was criticized by human rights organizations. 

“We are seeing that this is a standoff basically with Poland pushing people back. Belarus of course is using refugees as pawns in order to negotiate with the European Union, and this is completely unacceptable, but it’s equally unacceptable for Poland to be pushing people back,” Refugee and Migrant Rights Division Director at Human Rights Watch Bill Frelick told Rudaw on Wednesday.

Countries “have responsibilities” towards asylum-seekers "when they are at their doorstep and when they need to be protected," he added. 

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is offering assistance to those who want to return, or their bodies. 

"Those who are in a very bad situation and have entered Polish territory, some of them want to return to Kurdistan - we are helping them,” KRG’s representative in Poland Ziyad Rauf told Rudaw this week. “As for those who have lost their lives, we are trying to bring their bodies back to Kurdistan.”


Additional reporting by Bakhtyar Qadir, Fuad Rahimi, Alla Shaly, Bestoon Khalid, and Salih Qader