Channel drownings unlikely to slow exodus from Iraqi Kurdistan
“Many want to go to Europe in search of a different opportunity,” Barzani said. “It’s not a flight of desperation. I hope the world knows that these people went there like every other immigrant wants to travel and go in search of different opportunities in different parts of the world. But if they want to return, they can always return here.”
Repatriation flights organised by Iraq’s national airline, Iraqi Airways, has returned 400 Kurds from Belarus to Erbil in the past week. Another 700 have signed up to return, and Kurdish officials say they have arrested 10 travel agents who had facilitated their journeys. Airport security officials have also attempted to block passengers from leaving for Minsk, scrutinising journeys and looking for known stopover points – Istanbul and Damascus in particular.
Those still determined to leave say the opportunities officials speak about either don’t exist or are confined to small sectors of a struggling economy. “They want this to happen, but saying it is so doesn’t make it so,’’ the student said. “As long as things are as bad as they are, people are going to want to leave.”
