Mohammed, who used to reside in Damascus, arrived in Erbil on March 27th of this year. Shortly after his arrival, a decision was made to halt visa issuance to Syrian passport holders. Consequently, he was unable to secure residency so he had to return to Syria.
“I came here to work, and my trip cost me a total of 20 million Syrian pounds including visa and airplane ticket. 20 million [Syrian pounds] is not easy to get in Syria. My salary is a million in a [month],” Mohammed told Rudaw on Sunday.
"I borrowed money and sold everything I owned to work here, and I said to myself that the debt could be compensated and paid off. I came here but two days after I arrived here the decision was made that no visas would be issued [to Syrians]. What will I do now?" said Mohammad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government announced the decision to cease the issuance of visas to Syrian passport holders, starting from March 29th.
Hence, Syrian nationals who arrived in the Kurdistan Region shortly before this announcement are ineligible to apply for residency in the Region and must depart within a month.
The decision excludes individuals with residency status in the United States, Canada, and Europe, who are eligible to acquire a tourism visa for only 30 days.
Iraq hosts around 270,000 Syrian refugees, over 90 percent of whom reside in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the UN refugee agency. A large portion of this number are civilians who were forced to flee their homes following the 2011 Syrian civil war.
Job prospects are very limited for Syrian refugees and asylum seekers in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, with most resorting to low-paying jobs to make ends meet.
