ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven Kurds from the Kurdistan Region are set to be repatriated from Tunisia on Wednesday after being detained while attempting to reach Europe, an Iraqi lawmaker said.
"Most of the seven people are from the Raparin administration [in Sulaimani province]. They have reached Tunisia with the hope of making it to Europe, but they were detained by the [Tunisian] security forces," Muthana Amin, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
He added that the migrants are expected to arrive at Baghdad International Airport later on Wednesday.
Iraq’s embassy in Tunisia informed Rudaw on Wednesday that they have completed legal procedures for the repatriation of the seven nationals.
This is not the first time people of the Kurdistan Region have been arrested and later deported while attempting to reach Europe in search of a better life. Dozens have already been repatriated.
Last week, dozens of other Kurds were detained in Libya while attempting to reach Europe and were later deported, most of them originating from the Raparin administration.
In late October, Iraq repatriated 40 Kurds from the Region who had been stranded in Libya while attempting to reach Europe. Ahmed al-Sahaf, charge d’affaires at Iraq’s diplomatic mission in Tripoli, told Rudaw at the time that, since late December 2023, Iraqi authorities had arranged the return of a total of 122 Kurds from the North African country.
The Libya-Italy route is becoming increasingly popular among young people from Raparin seeking to reach Europe, as stricter controls have made the Turkey-Greece crossing less feasible.
The journey typically takes around eight hours, compared to up to 72 hours through Greece, but can cost as much as $17,000 per person, much of it paid to militias that control Libya’s coast, according to Bakr Ali, head of the Association of Returned Refugees.
The Kurdistan Region has seen repeated waves of youth emigration over the past decade, largely driven by economic hardship and the search for better opportunities abroad.
Officials and civil society groups in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly warned against the growing migration trend, pointing to high unemployment and limited economic opportunities in the Region as the main driving forces behind the surge.