_{Nearly 20,000 people migrated out of Iraq in 2023: Refugee foundation}

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in 2023, with at least nine of them losing their lives on the dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, a refugee foundation told Rudaw on Wednesday.

Over 760,000 people have migrated from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region since 2015, with the lowest number during that period being recorded in 2023 with 19,500 migrants, Hussein Hama Salih, the Greece representative of Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs told Rudaw’s Hemin Baban.

The number of migrants for 2023 is significantly lower than the data for 2022, during which Lutka recorded over 71,000 migrants. The foundation also reported at least nine migrant deaths over the past year, adding that the whereabouts of at least two others remain unknown. 

“Most of the people that migrate to Europe are from the Kurdistan Region and a smaller number are from Iraq’s other areas and provinces, therefore the majority of the casualties are also from the Kurdistan Region,” Hama Salih added.

Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes out of the country towards Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.

At least two people, including a 22-year-old Kurdish man from Sulaimani province’s Raparin administration, died when a boat carrying over 60 migrants capsized in the English Channel off the coast of France earlier this month.