ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The dead body of a Kurdish migrant who had made a perilous journey along with dozens to reach the European Union from Russia and was tortured to death by Latvian border guards around three weeks ago has not yet been repatriated to the Kurdistan Region.
“The 25 people, including two Arab nationals from Basra, entered Russia in October on tourist visas. They have received visas at the Russian consulate in Basra,” Danar Abu Bakir, KRG representative in Moscow, told The New Region on Wednesday, adding “they were deceived by human smugglers that it was easy to reach Europe from Russia.”
Shortly after they arrived in Moscow, the 25 migrants left the country and travelled to Belarus, and from there, they attempted to cross to Latvia.
“Unfortunately, they witnessed severe tortures, and one of them was tortured to death,” by the Latvia border guards, Abu Bakir said. “The dead body will be repatriated to the Kurdistan Region as soon as possible once the procedures have concluded."
“The Latvian commando had forcefully deported them to Belarus, and Belarus deported them to Russia, “ the Kurdish official said.
Pushing back migrants who enter the European Union's territories is illegal, according to the bloc's regulations and international laws.
Abu Bakir went on to detail that the migrants have been imprisoned by the Russian government since "they have illegally crossed another country from Russia, using the country’s visa.”
“The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in corodination with the Iraqi embassy will do our best to help accelerate their trials and then their deportations,” Abu Bakir said, noting that this process though may take time.
Thousands of migrants illegally try to cross the sea and land routes every year in search of a better life in Europe and the United Kingdom, with a large number of them coming from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Syria, Iran, and Turkey.
According to data from Lutka or the Summit Foundation for Refugees and the Displaced Affairs, around 750,000 Iraqis have migrated out of the country since 2015, a year after ISIS swept across large parts of the country.
As a result of a political rift between Belarus and the European Union in 2021, thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish people traveled to the Belarus-Poland borders that year to make it to Europe.
Minsk had been accused of exploiting the migrants and using them as a trump card against the EU nations’ block in response to sanctions they had imposed on the Belarusian regime at the time.
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