ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The 11 Kurdish asylum seekers who went missing while traveling through Libya are being brought back to the Kurdistan Region after months of efforts by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), an official said Sunday.

The 11 are part of a group of 18 Kurdish migrants who went missing in Libya nearly two months ago, 11 of whom are from the Region’s Raparin administration.

“The 11 Kurdish asylum seekers are being returned to the Kurdistan Region,” Salim Pasha, a senior advisor at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations, told The New Region on Sunday.

He siad that the government’s efforts to determine the fate of the young Kurdish asylum seekers will continue.

In late September, the KRG said it would repatriate three more migrants from Libya, while efforts continued to locate and return the 11 others who remained missing. The cost of their return will be covered by the Office of Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

The Kurdish migrants were being smuggled through Libya to Europe, and their families lost contact with them during their journey, according to information obtained by The New Region.

Many migrants trekking the perilous journey to Europe use the Libyan waterways to reach Italy through smuggling routes, often using boats that are not seaworthy and are prone to capsizing in the Mediterranean Sea.

In September, 33 Kurdish migrants who had gone missing in Libya were returned to the Kurdistan Region.

The Iraqi government has routinely warned of the dangers of illegal migration, with Libya having gained popularity in recent years as a major transit hub on the journey to Europe.

Over 700,000 migrants were registered in Libya last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).