Among the group is 22-year-old Khalil Ibrahim from the Kurdistan Region. In his final year of secondary school, he was pessimistic about job opportunities and so, like thousands of other Kurdish youth, decided to attempt the journey to Europe, according to his brother Sangar Ibrahim. He left Istanbul on September 19 for Turkey’s Izmir coast in order make the sea crossing to Italy.
“About three days ago my brother called us from Libya,” Ibrahim told Rudaw Radio's Kawar Salih on Monday. His brother said they are safe and in police custody in Benghazi.
Pouria Mohammadi is a Kurd from Iran and is also among the group. He spoke to Rudaw on Monday and recounted their journey.
“We were 4-5 hours away from Italian waters. They said there are waves and problems and we can’t go. The captains got scared,” he said.
“We were without food and water for four days and four nights in the sea. We couldn’t do anything, so we entered Libya,” he said. In Libya, they were picked up by the police.
Mohammadi said they are worried about their safety in the country that has seen years of conflict. “Deport us back to our cities or send us to Italy, whatever it is just get us out of here … I swear we are all about to go crazy.”
Ibrahim said a United Nations delegation visited them and most of the migrants from Iraq registered in order to be returned home. He was told that there are also people from Turkey and Afghanistan among the group.
Iraq does not have a representative in Libya, but a member of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign relations committee, Muthanna Amin, told Rudaw that they are in touch with the Iraqi ambassador in Tunis to issue passports to Iraqis in the group or send them to either Egypt or Tunisia.
Libyan authorities “have promised that, after they check those citizens and are reassured they don’t have any political or security issues and their presence at this time and place is not related to the internal conflict of Libya, … they will free them,” said Amin.
About 40 of the group of 58 migrants are Iraqis, according to The Summit Foundation (Lutka) for Refugee and Displaced Affairs, which is aiding in government assistance efforts. In a video submitted to Rudaw, children can be seen among the group of migrants.
United Nations experts, in a report issued on Monday about possible crimes against humanity in Libya, said that since 2016 some 87,000 migrants have been put in detention centers by the Libyan Coast Guard where torture and sexual violence are “prevalent.” This includes about 7,000 currently in centers run by the Department for Combatting Illegal Migration. Libya was plunged into chaos and instability after the 2011 uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.
According to Lutka, nearly 27,000 Iraqi citizens sought asylum in Europe in the first half of the year and five people lost their lives on journey.
Ibrahim said his brother was determined to take the risky trip, despite their family’s objections.
“My father and all my family didn’t support him leaving. We talked to him and tried to persuade him not to leave, but unfortunately he listened to himself and left,” he said.
“Although this is hard to say, but they are truly fed up with the Kurdistan Regional Government and our youth are all unemployed. That’s why like most of the youth of Kurdistan, he took the road of uncertainty and now he is in Libya,” he said.
In a meeting with a group of young people in Duhok last month, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said his government is working to engage with the youth to hear their concerns as well as supporting the establishment of small and medium businesses to create jobs.
This is not the first Europe-bound group of Kurdish and Iraqi migrants who have been stranded in foreign countries in recent months. More than 50 ended up in Syria’s Aleppo province in September after trying to reach the United Kingdom. Another group of 32 Yazidis were recently stuck on the Poland-Belarus border without food or clean water. In August, more than 300 Iraqis were returned from Belarus.
