“After investigating and collecting information on the suspects involved in smuggling the citizens of the Kurdistan Region to the Italian coast … four big smugglers were arrested by judge’s order,” Sulaimani-based Asayish said in a statement.
Two shipwrecks off the coast of Italy last week killed at least 34 migrants. Most of the passengers were from the Kurdistan Region and Iran’s western Kurdish areas (Rojhelat), as well as from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria.
Italian authorities reported that 67 people were on board one of the vessels that capsized 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria.
Asayish assured “the citizens of the Kurdistan Region that its efforts and investigations will continue and anyone else involved in smuggling inside or outside the Region will be arrested and brought to justice,” the statement said.
Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes out of the country towards Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the conflict-ridden country, including the lack of employment, political instability, a fragile economy and rampant corruption.
Among all the routes taken, the Central Mediterranean between the coast of North Africa and Italy and Malta is the deadliest in the world.
According to data from Italy’s interior ministry obtained by AFP news agency, arrivals to the country have dropped significantly since the beginning of the year, with 24,100 migrants arriving so far this year, compared to 57,500 in the same period in 2023.
Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in the pursuit of greener pastures in 2023, with at least nine losing their lives on dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
Last month, the Asayish arrested Barzan Kamal Majeed, known as “Scorpion,” one of the world’s most notorious migrant smugglers who was the subject of a BBC investigation in Sulaimani.
