ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq on Tuesday announced a temporary ban on foreign workers from four south Asian countries, as well as Syria, as part of its efforts to boost employment opportunities for local workers.
Speaking to Rudaw, the spokesperson for the Iraqi labor ministry Hassan Khawan stated that “the decision has been made by the interior ministry.” He confirmed that the nationalities affected by the ban include “Syrian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, and Filipino workers, who will not be permitted to enter Iraq for work purposes.”
Khawam emphasized that the labor ministry will be responsible for implementing the decision and will liaise with the interior ministry to enable the latter to take legal action against violators.
The labor ministry spokesperson further explained that the exact duration of the ban remains unclear, but that “it falls under the government's broader effort to create [job] opportunities for domestic workers.”
The decision comes as Iraq has in recent months ramped up efforts to combat illegal residency.
In late March, Iraq’s interior ministry announced the arrest of some 738 foreign workers in Baghdad for violating residency procedures and conditions.
The ministry’s spokesperson Miqdad Miri then told Rudaw that the arrests “were part of a large-scale operation to look into [the cases of] Arab and foreign workers” who “had violated residency procedures or entered Iraqi territory without visas and official procedures.”
Such operations are conducted regularly, Miri added, with violators typically deported.
In March 2024, the Iraqi authorities launched a major campaign against individuals allegedly breaching residency requirements. Many Syrians were detained and deported after raids on homes and workplaces.
The Iraqi government has faced criticism from human rights organizations over its handling of deportations.
According to the United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “Iraq hosts over 300,000 refugees and asylum-seekers as of the end of 2023 - more than 90 percent of whom are Syrians (some 270,000).”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in June reported that between April 19 to 26, it “spoke with seven Syrians, by phone and in person, in Erbil and Baghdad. Four of them were awaiting deportation” despite holding “valid Iraqi residence permits,” while three others were registered refugees with the UNHCR, said HRW.
