Sixteen Kurds detained in Tunisia released after ‘attempting journey to Europe’

ERBIL – Sixteen Kurdish youth from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, who had been detained in Tunisia for two months while attempting to migrate to Europe, have been released. According to Muthanna Amin, a Kurdish lawmaker and member of Iraq’s Foreign Relations Committee, the group had been misled by human traffickers.

“These young people legally traveled from Iraq to Tunisia as tourists, but intended to continue their journey to Europe. Tunisian police, suspecting they were not genuine tourists, arrested them,” Amin told 964media.

Following two months of persistent efforts and coordination, the detainees were freed on Friday. “All of them have been released and will return to the Kurdistan Region within the next two days,” Amin confirmed.

Most of the detainees are from Qaladze, with others from Ranya in the Raparin independent administration, one from Said Sadiq in Sulaymaniyah, and two from Koya in Erbil governorate. Two of the individuals are minors under the age of 18.

Amin noted that this is not the first instance of Kurdish youth being arrested in Tunisia, but the two-month detention raised significant concerns as the group had been deceived by human traffickers.

In 2023, the European Union recorded its highest number of asylum applications since the 2015-16 refugee crisis, with over 1.14 million people seeking international protection. Among these, 26,131 were Iraqis, most of whom are believed to be of Kurdish origin, according to a report by the European Union Agency for Asylum.

Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers commonly use the Eastern Mediterranean route through Turkey to Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria. However, traffickers have increasingly used new routes from the Turkish and Lebanese coasts to Italy, as well as the Western and Central Mediterranean routes through Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia toward Italy and Malta.

The International Organization for Migration reports that the Mediterranean continues to be a deadly crossing, with 3,155 migrants reported dead or missing in 2023, and over 1,000 lost so far this year.