ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed on Sunday said that pressures in “various forms” on the Kurdistan Region have made migration an attractive choice for people, adding that the KRG is in communication with several foreign actors to address the phenomenon.

Speaking to reporters, Ahmed said that "psychological, political, economic, security, and military pressures" that target the Kurdistan Region through "various ways" have incentivized people to resort to migrating, noting that Erbil "is in constant cooperation with neighboring countries and European countries to limit the activity of” people smuggling networks.

Thousands of migrants illegally try to cross the deadly Aegean Sea 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 published by the Summit (Lutka) Foundation, over 15,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have migrated to Europe from January to June 2025, raising the total number of Iraqi migrants to around 780,000 since 2015.

Ahmed also laid some of the blame at the feet of the elaborate people smuggling networks, who “lay the groundwork” for the spread of the phenomenon, adding that authorities in the Kurdistan Region has been able to arrest many such networks, and the number of those still active has reduced considerably.

The interior minister noted that certain networks that operate from outside the Kurdistan Region have made efforts of containing the situation more difficult, noting however, that the Region coordinates with regional and international actors to also apprehend such bands.

The British government in late November announced they had reached a “world-first” security agreement with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, aimed at combating irregular migration and other border security concerns. The agreement came during a November visit by UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, during which she met with Iraqi and Kurdistan Region officials,