ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Twenty-three migrants from the Kurdistan Region have been located in Libya after arriving in the north African country on their journey to Europe, a senior official from Iraq’s embassy in Tripoli said on Thursday.
"An additional 23 migrants, who had illegally entered Libya, were located," Ahmed al-Sahaf, chargé d'affaires at the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Tripoli, told Rudaw, adding some of them are under 18 years old.
The Iraqi diplomat explained that finding the last group was possible due to coordination with relevant authorities in Tripoli.
"We immediately started procedures to prove their identities to facilitate their return to Iraq, in coordination with the Libyan authorities," Sahaf said.
He said they have already established contact with their families to "assure them of the safety [of their sons]."
Sahaf said on Wednesday that they had readied credentials for a total of 40 migrants - all from the Kurdistan Region - ahead of their repatriation to Iraq on Saturday. They too had entered Libya to use its waterways to illegally move to Europe.
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.
Iraq has already repatriated 68 migrants from Libya so far, according to Sahaf.
Rudaw reported in July that increasing numbers of youth from Sulaimani’s Raparin administration have turned to the Libya-Italy route to reach Europe, as tighter restrictions have made the traditional Turkey-Greece crossing less viable.
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).