KRG repatriates 11 Kurdish migrants from Libya
Shafaq News- Erbil
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Friday returned 11 Kurdish men from Libya, while efforts continue to locate 10 others from the Raparin area who remain missing, the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) said.
The JCC said Prime Minister Masrour Barzani had instructed the KRG Interior Ministry and Department of Foreign Relations to take urgent measures to locate and return the missing men.
Authorities had received information that 14 young men had been detained in Libya, three of whom were repatriated before today’s returnees, the JCC said.
KRG measures have significantly reduced irregular migration, the centre said, though it did not specify the period or provide figures.
On September 7, the KRG returned 33 Kurdish men from Libya. The KRG said that group had been detained and gone missing before the Department of Foreign Relations, working with Iraq’s embassy in Libya, located them and arranged their release.
The KRG Interior Ministry previously said some members of the 33-person group had spent eight months in prison and repeatedly faced threats to their lives. Their return raised the KRG’s reported number of irregular migrants repatriated from Libya to 335.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) describes Libya as both a destination and transit country for migrants and says migrants there face risks including arbitrary detention, human trafficking, forced labor, and violence. IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix identified 950,004 migrants across Libya in May and June 2026.
As of October 9, IOM’s Missing Migrants data listed 1,006 people as dead or missing on the Central Mediterranean route in 2026.
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