ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Region’s government said Tuesday they were aware of the news that at least 17 Kurdish migrants have gone missing in Libya, but it remains unclear whether they were arrested or abducted.
Thousands of migrants illegally try to cross the deadly Mediterranean Sea every year in search of a better life in Europe and the United Kingdom, with a large number of them coming from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Syria, Iran, and Turkey.
Some of those who trek the perilous journey to illegally move to Europe from the Kurdistan Region use the Libyan waterways to reach Italy through smuggling routes.
“The youth migrants, numbering 17, are from Qaladze and Zharawa [in Sulaimani province]. They have been kidnapped by a mafia group. They demand $30,000 in ransom to free each one of the abducted,” Ranj Pshdari, a Greece-based Kurdish migrants activist, announced.
Libya has, in recent years, become a major transit country for migrants from Africa and the Middle East, including the Kurdistan Region, due to its proximity to European Union countries.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has immediately come on the line to learn of the fate of the migrants and discover their whereabouts through diplomatic channels between Iraq and Libya.
“We are aware that a number of migrants have faced difficulties in Libya. However, we do not know if they are arrested or kidnapped,” Abdul Khaleq Mohammed, media officer of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations (DFR), told The New Region.
Mohammed found it difficult to learn of the missing Kurds’ whereabouts anytime soon.
The DFR official detailed that even the Iraqi foreign ministry cannot actively search for them as “each place in Libya is under the control of a certain group.”
Libya has been ruled by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by different armed groups and foreign governments.
Over 700,000 migrants were registered in Libya last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The New Region has contacted the Iraqi embassy in Tripoli on the matter at hand, but has yet to receive a reply as of this writing.
Every year, thousands of Iraqis put their lives in the hands of shady people-smuggling networks, embarking on highly hazardous journeys in search of a better life abroad.
According to data from Lutka or the Summit Foundation for Refugees and the Displaced Affairs, more than 750,000 Iraqis have migrated out of the country since 2015.
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