ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Twenty-five migrants from Sulaimani province who were rescued in Libya arrived in Erbil early Wednesday, nearly two months after attempting to illegally migrate to Europe.
“These youth safely returned to the homeland after suffering great pain and hardship for more than fifty days in Libyan prisons,” Srwa Rasul, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC), said in a statement.
The returnees are all from the Kurdistan Region’s Raparin administration. Their arrival follows weeks of coordination between the KRG and Iraqi authorities.
Ahmad al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Embassy's charge d'affaires in Libya, said the repatriation process took more than six weeks, during which the migrants were monitored and provided with food, medicine, and other assistance. Sahaf added that another Kurdish migrant, Hazhar Qadir from Raparin, remains in Libya but is expected to be returned at a later date.
Rudaw reported in July that increasing numbers of youth from Raparin have turned to the Libya-Italy route to reach Europe, as tighter restrictions have made the traditional Turkey-Greece crossing less viable.
“Most migrants are going through Libya,” Europe-based migrant rights activist Ranj Pishdari told Rudaw at the time. “From there, they head across the Mediterranean to Italy. It’s become the preferred route despite the risks.”
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 (ARR).
In August, six other Kurdish migrants were also repatriated from Libya. 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.
