KRG’s Interior Minister allows students in Turkey to return amid COVID-19 border closures

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s minister of interior has agreed to grant Kurdish students studying in Turkey an exception to enter the region amid border closures and flight suspensions due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Interior previously halted all travel and passenger movement throughout its borders as part of strict measures to combat the deadly coronavirus.

Abdulstar Majid, a Kurdish lawmaker, told local media on Monday that the decision to allow the students back came after several of them were detained at the border with the Kurdistan Region and Turkey. He said authorities denied the students entry “due to strict measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.”

“After contacting the Minister of Interior, Reber Ahmed, measures were taken to allow them to return while going through the medical inspection, including placing them in quarantine for two weeks,” Majid added.

Besides banning travel via its borders, the regional government has enacted multiple strict precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus such as temporarily closing schools, declaring extended public holidays for government employees, and canceling all religious services and other public gatherings.

The number of deaths due to the coronavirus in Iraq has reached 20, while the number of infections has risen to 233, including 57 full recoveries, according to a statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Health on late Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in the Kurdistan Region announced 12 new coronavirus cases in Erbil on Monday, bringing the number of infected in the region to 76 cases.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany