ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian businessman who has been living in the Kurdistan Region for about a decade said he is being told to return after the immigration office refused to renew his right to stay.
Anas Humsi is from the Syrian capital of Damascus. He arrived in Erbil about nine years ago and opened his own business. Although he has held his residency card ever since, he said the immigration office has refused to renew his right to stay.
“When I wanted to renew my residency card, my lawyer told me that you have to cancel your residency, leave the Kurdistan Region, and then enter the Kurdistan Region again on a new visa, just like someone who enters for the first time,” Humsi told Rudaw in his Erbil office on Saturday.
“This is happening while the Kurdistan Region does not issue new visas for Syrians. We cannot leave here, nor can we return if we leave,” he lamented.
Although the Kurdistan Region attracted over a quarter of a million Syrian Kurds at the start of the brutal Syrian civil war in 2011, the majority of Syrian Arabs started to enter the Region as late as 2018.
A Rudaw reporter visiting a local market in Erbil said she counted at least 50 Syrians who work and live in the area, all of whom face an uncertain future.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry issued an instruction earlier in April stating that it will not issue new visas for Syrians. It was understood at the time that those who already had been issued visa and residency cards – like Humsi – would not be affected by the decision.
The ministry said Syrians who have Canadian, American, or European citizenship can be issued visitor visas but are not allowed to apply for a residency card.
According to Iraqi citizenship regulations issued in 2006, any foreigner who legally entered the country and has stayed for ten consecutive years has the right to apply for Iraqi citizenship.
But this regulation is being ignored by the authorities.
Rekar Aziz, a Kurdish lawyer who represents Humsi, told Rudaw that individuals such as his client are having to sign a document stating that they will give up their rights.
“Someone like Anas who has a business here and has his family here, is now forced to return to his country in Syria. The problem is that if he leaves, he cannot return,” Aziz said.
The lawyer, who specializes in immigration affairs, said his business has also been affected. He stressed that if clients are found breaching the new regulations, their companies could be penalized for as much as two million Iraqi dinars (about $1370) per case.
The interior ministry and relevant departments have met to discuss the issue, but no decision has been made regarding the outcome, Rudaw understands.
