ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A group of 25 Kurdish migrants who had been stranded in Libya while trying to reach Europe, were "successfully" repatriated to the Kurdistan Region on Thursday, an Iraqi official in Tripoli confirmed.
Iraq's diplomatic mission in Tripoli "successfully repatriated 25 migrants who had entered Libyan territory illegally," Ahmed al-Sahaf, Baghdad's chargé d'affaires told Rudaw.
Sahaf added the repatriation was "in accordance with the voluntary return program that the embassy regularly implements."
Twenty-three of them were located over 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 repatriations were delayed, he said.
The Iraqi official said they are currently working to repatriate another 12 migrants, also from the Kurdistan Region.
They have been held in Misrata province, approximately 250 km from Tripoli, he said, adding they dispatched a consular team to visit them on Tuesday "to finalize the procedures for their voluntary repatriation."
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.