ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A boat painted in the colors of the Kurdish flag carrying dozens of migrants crossing the English Channel made headlines in the UK on Thursday as authorities in the Kurdistan Region, UK, and France are cracking down heavily on people smugglers.
The incident occurred on Thursday on a Belgian beach across the French border where batches of migrants make the dangerous journey to the UK.
A team from Rudaw has previously documented the journeys of migrants from one of the notable camps in northern France informally dubbed ‘Dunkirk Jungle’ - just 10 kilometers from Belgium - where hundreds of people are living in limbo as they attempt crossings to the UK, paying thousands each.
The UK home office is yet to publish the data of Thursday’s crossings. In the previous week, no migrants arrived illegally after three incidents were prevented. Data for the months of October shows 24 boats carrying migrants crossed the English Channel.
Footage posted to X on Thursday appeared to show a dinghy painted in the Kurdish colors- green, white, red, and a strip of yellow. The vessel had approximately 25 men aboard who responded to the videographer that they were heading to the UK.
“Are you looking forward to England?” the videographer asked. “Yes,” those abroad replied.
The video gained significant traction online with right-wing commentators and outlets following right-wing leader of the Reform UK Party Nigel Farage’s post, stating, “This boat is even custom-made to match the Kurdish flag. The gangs are laughing at us.”
A picture of the Kurdish flag accompanied Farage’s post.
Farage highlighted the Belgian authorities, also present in the footage, who appeared not to stop the vessel from leaving.
“We now have gangs painting the boats their national colours. They are taking the piss. We’re being invaded from Calais, Normandy - and now Belgium too. I will deploy the Royal Navy and stop the boats forever," stated a second post.
It is not known from where the vessel or those aboard have originated or are going.
Aside from the backlash, the incident has highlighted the ongoing ubiquity of Kurdish people involved with trafficking to the UK.
A committee dedicated to “irregular migration” was told last month that there was an “over-representation of Iraqi Kurds” present in the gangs involved in people-smuggling to the UK.
In 2026, several high profile individuals from the Kurdistan Region involved with these operations were arrested. In May, the BBC identified ‘Kardo Jaf’ - an alias - as a “key player” in a network based in the Kurdistan Region which facilitated irregular migration.
During their investigation, a BBC reporter impersonating a client received a quote from Jaf offering a “VIP” service to Manchester for an entire family for $214,000.
Jaff was arrested in the Kurdistan Region's Ranya by security forces. His family denied the accusations leveled against him.
Nonetheless, Jaf’s case represents one of many.
The BBC further talked to Muthanna Amin, a sitting member of the Kurdish Islamic United Party (KIU), who also works with the foreign relations committee.
Amin described Ranya in the Sulimani governorate as having a “powerful network” connected with people-smugglers.
“If you really catch these smugglers that are controlling things from Ranya, then maybe you can solve 70% of the problem you see with migration in the UK,” he said.
Due to the covert and complex logistical nature of people smuggling, it is difficult to establish concrete figures of those from the Kurdistan Region involved in the illicit activity.
Authorities in the past years have clamped down also on irregular immigration. The UK Home Office records a 42 percent reduction in ‘small boat’ arrivals to the UK in 2026 as compared to 2025.
Of 41,000 migrants who crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2025, 4 percent were Iraqi nationals, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.
This decline perhaps reflects a concerted bilateral effort from both the UK and KRG to combat this issue.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Masrour Bazani met with UK National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, along with the UK’s ambassador to Baghdad and the Consular General to Erbil.
Among other topics, the UK reaffirmed its “commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and cooperation, particularly in tackling illegal migration.”
In March 2024, the UK Home Office launched an advertising campaign in Sorani Kurdish that aimed to deter people from attempting to reach the UK illegally.
One poster covering the face of a young woman read, “they promised me a good job, instead they made me a slave.”
