Kurdistan Parliament to discuss retirement reform, trafficking, Afrin

The parliament of the Kurdistan Region is set to convene on Wednesday to discuss topics including retirement reform and human trafficking, plus ongoing military operations in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The parliament of the Kurdistan Region is set to convene on Wednesday to discuss topics including retirement reform and human trafficking, plus ongoing military operations in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

According to the schedule sent to lawmakers, the session will include debate on a new bill designed to revamp the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) retirement system and mitigate the problem of so-called “ghost” employees. A new bill to deal with human trafficking will be also receive an official reading before the political body, as well as a report about the situation in Afrin by members of a parliamentary commission who just returned from the war-torn area.

On Feb. 11, delegates from the Parliament arrived in Afrin, in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), and were welcomed by people and Kurdish officials in the region.

The commission was created in response to Turkey’s controversial military operation launched on Jan. 20 as an attempt to drive the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) from Afrin. Ankara sees these groups collectively as ‘terrorists’ and as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who have been waging an insurgency against the Turkish government for decades.

During the parliament session, Amanj Rahim, Secretary of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers is scheduled to attend and talk about the cabinet’s reform plans.

Regarding the retirement reform bill, committees including Finance, Peshmerga, Interior, Legal Affairs, Parliament Affairs, and Integrity, have already submitted reports to Parliament leadership with recommendations for the bill.

Among the issues dealt with by the bill are ‘ghost’ employees, the name commonly used for potentially thousands of government employees who receive salaries and retirement pensions without having to show up for work, or without even holding an actual position. Plans in the bill to combat this practice, a severe drain on the KRG’s budget, a new comprehensive list of employees would be created, using the collection of employees’ biometric data, such as fingerprints and eye scans.

Editing by John J. Catherine