ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region's interior ministry on Sunday announced its plan for the two-day census lockdown later this week, saying foreign missions and nationals, airports, international organizations and journalists will not be affected by the decision.
Following a meeting between the interior ministry and representatives from the Kurdistan Region’s independent administrations, police, local security forces (Asayish), and the planning ministry, officials emphasized “the importance of the general census process and encouraged all citizens to be at home and register their data accurately,” according to a statement from the ministry.
Iraq will conduct a nationwide census on Wednesday and Thursday.
A census lockdown will be imposed in early hours of Wednesday until Thursday midnight across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, the interior ministry announced in a statement, instructing residents to remain at home to allow enumerators to collect accurate data.
The ministry outlined that transportation within and between cities will be restricted to security forces, health workers, civil defense teams, journalists, technical teams from communication companies, and on-call staff of oil and gas companies.
Employees of designated pharmacies, bakeries, and essential food markets will be permitted to move with limited capacity.
Representatives and staff of diplomatic missions, UN agencies, international organizations, and foreigners residing in the Kurdistan Region are exempt from the curfew.
Airports and international ports will also be open for tourism, arrivals and trade movements.
The ministry encouraged people who belong to Kurdish areas outside the Kurdistan Region “who can arrange accommodation to return to their hometowns from today” to be registered from Sunday through Tuesday and to remain there for the verification of their information on Wednesday and Thursday - the most crucial part of the process.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers on Thursday ordered a week-long public holiday to enable its civil servants and students, who are original residents of the disputed areas, such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, to return to their cities in order to participate in a crucial nationwide population census which is vital for the future of these territories.
