{"id":47084,"date":"2021-12-02T07:22:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T07:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47084"},"modified":"2021-12-02T07:22:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T07:22:25","slug":"why-thousands-of-iraqi-kurds-risk-their-lives-to-reach-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47084","title":{"rendered":"Why thousands of Iraqi Kurds risk their lives to reach Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Asos Hassan is among thousands of people from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq who have risked their lives trying to reach Europe this year.<\/p>\n

Desperate to escape economic hardship and political repression, the 28-year-old university graduate from Koya, a town located east of the capital Erbil, has twice tried to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, but was deported by Turkish authorities.<\/p>\n

Despite the failed attempts, he plans to return to Turkey and keep trying until he reaches his destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will keep at it even if I get deported dozens of times,\u201d said Hassan. \u201cI\u2019d rather die than continue living this miserable life,\u201d he added, explaining he has struggled to find employment for years and feels hopeless about the future.<\/p>\n

Like Hassan, Kamaran Aziz, a 21-year-old from Halabja, tried to reach Europe through Belarus<\/a> but was deported by local authorities when his visa expired last week.<\/p>\n

Aziz paid Kurdish smugglers $6,000 to make the journey but instead found himself detained and beaten by Belarusian border police before they forced him home. Aziz told Al Jazeera he would rather die trying again than stay in the Kurdish region.<\/p>\n

Many of the nearly 30 people who lost their lives<\/a> trying to cross the English Channel last week were from the Kurdish region.<\/p>\n

Iraqi Kurds have also died on the border between Belarus and Poland as hundreds<\/a> more remain stranded in sub-zero temperatures while trying to cross into the European Union.<\/p>\n

These tragic events have highlighted the growing wave of migration out of the Kurdish region and left many wondering why people would undertake such perilous journeys to leave an area rich in oil resources and long hailed as a haven of stability and a model of development for the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

Men attend a condolence ceremony for Iraqi Kurdish Maryam Nuri Hama Amin who drowned in the English Channel [File: Safin Hamed\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

Corruption, repression, poverty<\/h3>\n

Like most Kurdish emigrants, the two young men complained about high unemployment, unpaid salaries, widespread corruption, poor public services, and patronage networks linked to two main families and their political parties that have shared power of the region for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to find a job unless you\u2019ve connections with the ruling elite,\u201d said Hassan. \u201cAnd if you try to call for your civil rights or participate in peaceful demonstrations, you just get fired at with live bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kurdish region, which is dominated by the Barzani and Talabani families and their Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union Kurdistan (PUK), has seen an increasing number of protests over the past few years.<\/p>\n

Thousands of students from Sulaimaniyah took to the streets<\/a> for several days last month demanding the reinstatement of a monthly stipend that was cut seven years ago. The protests turned violent after riot police confronted the students and used live rounds to disperse the crowds.<\/p>\n

Smaller protests spread to other cities in the Kurdish region, including Erbil, Halabja, Kalar and Koya, and solidarity demonstrations took place in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the United Nations denounced \u201carbitrary arrests\u201d, unfair trials and \u201cintimidation of journalists, activists and protesters\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n

Riot police try to disperse a protest by university students near Sulaimaniyah [File: Shwan Mohammed\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

Growing wave of migration<\/h3>\n

According to Ari Jalal, head of the Sulaymaniyah-based Summit Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs, at least 40,000 Iraqis left the country since the beginning of 2021, 70 percent of whom came from the Kurdish region.<\/p>\n

Jalal said migration out of Iraq has been on the rise since the 1990s, but it slowed following the US-led invasion in 2003, before increasing again with the rise of ISIL (ISIS) in 2014.<\/p>\n

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has blamed the growing number of people moving out of the Kurdish region on the influx of internally displaced people from across Iraq after ISIL took over large swaths of the country\u2019s north in 2014, and on decades-long tensions between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).<\/p>\n

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, has been using Iraq\u2019s northern mountains as a springboard for its rebellion against Turkey. The Turkish army regularly conducts cross-border operations and air attacks against the PKK in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n

In a statement last week, Dindar Zebari, KRG coordinator for international advocacy, said the entry of nearly 700,000 internally displaced people into the region from other parts of Iraq has been a source of frustration for Iraqi Kurds, making many \u201cgrow a tendency to flee the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added hundreds of villages in bordering areas where PKK fighters have clashed with Turkey becoming deserted also added to the increase in migration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who are migrating are telling false stories about living conditions in the Kurdistan Region and are being exploited \u2026 to tarnish the region\u2019s reputation,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. He said smugglers looking for material gain were also to blame.<\/p>\n

Erbil has worked closely with Baghdad to repatriate hundreds of Kurdish refugees stranded in Europe. It denies forcing its citizens to return.<\/p>\n

Protesters gesture during a demonstration at the Azadi Park in the centre of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq\u2019s semi-autonomous Kurdish region [File: Shwan Mohammed\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

\u2018Source of embarrassment\u2019<\/h3>\n

But analysts said the real reasons behind Kurdish migration were unrelated to the government\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main problem is the corruption, repression of freedoms and civil liberties, and lack of employment,\u201d said independent Kurdish analyst Mahmoud Kurdi.<\/p>\n

He denied the influx of internally displaced people (IDP) or tensions between Turkey and the PKK, which \u201caffect small villages where only a few hundred people live\u201d were to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are growing tired with poverty and unemployment. Even redevelopment has been limited to major cities like Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, but most areas remain poor, looking closer to Sadr City,\u201d he added, referring to one of the most deprived areas in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Karim Nouri, deputy minister of migration and displacement in Iraq\u2019s central government, agreed. \u201cThe wave of migration out of the Kurdish region is because young people are finding it difficult to live freely and decently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The semi-autonomous region, known for its flashy tower blocks and open green spaces, has regularly been criticised for restricting freedom of expression and, recently, the continuing refugee crisis along the Belarus-Poland border has shed further light on growing corruption, poverty, and financial mismanagement.<\/p>\n

According to Sulaymaniyah-based analyst Lawan Othman, the migrant crisis has been a \u201csource of huge embarrassment for the KRG\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s the migration issue or recent protests, all these events are linked to a wider sense of frustration among Kurdish people,\u201d said Othman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey reflect Kurdish people\u2019s disapproval and rejection of their government and how it\u2019s breached their sense of dignity and basic civil rights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Dana Taib Menmy contributed to this report from Sulaimaniyah<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asos Hassan is among thousands of people from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq who have risked their lives trying to reach Europe this year. Desperate to escape economic hardship and political repression, the 28-year-old university graduate from Koya, a town located east of the capital Erbil, has twice tried to cross the Aegean…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}