ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A group of 25 Kurdish migrants who have been stranded in Libya while trying to reach Europe, will be deported to the Kurdistan Region on Friday, an Iraqi official in Tripoli confirmed on Monday.
Twenty-three of them were located nearly two weeks ago, and the other two were supposed to be repatriated along with 38 others on October 25, but due to technical issues in their documents, their repatriation were delayed, Ahmed al-Sahaf, chargé d'affaires at Iraq’s diplomatic mission in Tripoli, told Rudaw.
"We have located more migrants, but we have not yet gained knowledge about their exact number," Sahaf said, adding they are also from the Kurdistan Region.
"As soon as we receive them, we will inform you and their families," the official said.
The Kurdistan Region has seen repeated waves of youth migration over the past decade, largely driven by economic hardship and the search for better opportunities abroad.
The Libya-Italy route is increasingly popular among youth from Sulaimani’s Raparin administration as tighter restrictions have made the Turkey-Greece crossing less viable.
The Libya-Italy 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.