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GARMIYAN, Kurdistan Region - Rising unemployment has driven a large number of Kurdish and Turkmen residents out of Garmiyan administration’s Kifri district, raising the risk of a demographic change in the ethnically mixed area.
"I feel very very sad that I am leaving, but I am forced to do so. I owe 40,000,000 dinars in debt,” Khalid Ahmed, a resident of Kifri, told Rudaw’s Hunar Hameed on Friday.
Kifri, located between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, has from time to time been subject to attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) despite the group being declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017.
“My children wonder why we continue living like this. Now I am planning to move to Kalar or Sulaimani, just because I have no job opportunities here," Ahmed continued.
According to data from Kifri Advocate Society, a local NGO, since 2014, over two thousand Kurdish and Turkmen families have left the district, while over a thousand Arab families have moved to the area, with the demographic change on the rise.
Other factors contributing to the massive migration from the city are a lack of basic services in the region, notably electricity, roads, and government institutions.
According to Shamal Namiq, Kifri’s mayor, the lack of services and employment opportunities are the main issues pushing people to leave the district in search of a better life elsewhere.
“Another factor pushing people to leave is continued disputes between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments since this town is situated on the fringes of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region,” Namiq added.
According to data from the Kurdistan Region's Statistic Board, more than 58,000 people live in Kifri and it has historically been one of the oldest inhabited Kurdish areas.
"I feel very very sad that I am leaving, but I am forced to do so. I owe 40,000,000 dinars in debt,” Khalid Ahmed, a resident of Kifri, told Rudaw’s Hunar Hameed on Friday.
Kifri, located between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, has from time to time been subject to attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) despite the group being declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017.
“My children wonder why we continue living like this. Now I am planning to move to Kalar or Sulaimani, just because I have no job opportunities here," Ahmed continued.
According to data from Kifri Advocate Society, a local NGO, since 2014, over two thousand Kurdish and Turkmen families have left the district, while over a thousand Arab families have moved to the area, with the demographic change on the rise.
Other factors contributing to the massive migration from the city are a lack of basic services in the region, notably electricity, roads, and government institutions.
According to Shamal Namiq, Kifri’s mayor, the lack of services and employment opportunities are the main issues pushing people to leave the district in search of a better life elsewhere.
“Another factor pushing people to leave is continued disputes between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments since this town is situated on the fringes of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region,” Namiq added.
According to data from the Kurdistan Region's Statistic Board, more than 58,000 people live in Kifri and it has historically been one of the oldest inhabited Kurdish areas.
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