Peregraf- The Chargé d'Affaires at the Iraqi Embassy in Tripoli, Ahmed Al-Sahhaf, announced today (Saturday) the repatriation of 40 Kurdish migrants from Libya to Erbil, as part of ongoing efforts to return stranded Iraqis from the North African country.
In a statement, Al-Sahhaf said that "the plane carrying 40 Iraqi migrants took off toward Istanbul and from there to Erbil," noting that the embassy "made exceptional efforts to coordinate their return and is preparing to repatriate another 35 migrants soon."
He explained that the embassy provided food, medicine, and travel tickets in cooperation with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), commending the cooperation of the Libyan Government of National Unity in facilitating the process.
According to Al-Sahhaf, 122 migrants have been repatriated since the reopening of the Iraqi embassy in Tripoli on December 23, 2023, stressing that efforts continue to raise awareness among citizens about the dangers of human smuggling and trafficking networks that exploit young Iraqis.
He added that Iraq "has great opportunities in the youth sector and is no longer a source of migration," pointing out that both the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya and the Center for Combating Irregular Migration in Tripoli praised the embassy’s efforts and attention to Iraqi migrants.
Earlier, Al-Sahhaf had announced the death of Kurdish migrant Hogar Asso Khidr, who died of a heart attack inside a detention center in Libya. The young man, in his twenties, was from the Hajiawa area of Sulaymaniyah Governorate.
Libya remains a major transit route for Iraqi migrants seeking to reach Europe, where human smuggling and trafficking networks continue to operate amid the country’s fragile security situation. Iraqi and KRG authorities, in coordination with Libyan and international partners, have conducted several voluntary repatriation flights to bring back citizens trapped in dangerous migration conditions.