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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven people from the Kurdistan Region who unsuccessfully tried to reach European shores through Libya will arrive in Baghdad on Saturday, Iraq’s acting ambassador to Tripoli told Rudaw.
“We have completed the voluntary repatriation procedures for seven Iraqi citizens in Libya who were trying to reach Europe through illegal means,” Ahmed al-Sahaf said.
Sahaf noted that the repatriation was coordinated with the Libyan government and the Foreign Relations Committee in the Iraqi parliament.
Muthanna Amin, a member of that committee, told Rudaw on Saturday that the seven people are originally from Sulaimani province in the Kurdistan Region and were held “for some time” in Libyan detention centers.
“Two of them were detained in the [capital] Tripoli and five others in Bir al-Ghanam,” in the west of the country, he said.
Amin explained that the seven Kurds left Tripoli on Friday for Jordan and will arrive in Baghdad on Saturday. From there they will be returned to the Kurdistan Region.
Libya is a popular transit country for people trying to reach Europe because of its strategic geopolitical position and proximity to Italy. In 2024, around 719,000 migrants were registered in Libya, according to a report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Crossing the Mediterranean is a deadly route. According to the IOM, 31,724 people have died or gone missing in the sea since 2014.
Every year, thousands of Kurds take dangerous routes to Europe, including through Libya.
On March 20, a group of five people were returned to the Kurdistan Region from Libya after "an armed group had detained three of them,” Amin stated.
The Kurdish MP also noted that on Friday an Iraqi citizen who had been arrested in Tunisia “with forged documents” was released and will return to the Kurdistan Region in the coming days.
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