Baghdad orders opening of passport directorate in 'Halabja Province'

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Interior Ministry has ordered the opening of a passport directorate in Halabja, describing the city as a recognized province in the country in an official letter issued on April 19.

On Tuesday, the order was posted to the official account of the Secretary of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers, Amanj Rahim.

According to Director General of the Sulaimani Passport Office Salar Abdullah, the order came after a delegation from the Iraqi government visited Halabja last month on the anniversary of the Kurdish genocide in the province, where chemical gas attacks killed about 182,000 people, including children.

“From now on, people from Halabja do not need to visit Sulaimani’s passport office to register for or renew their passports, but can do so in their province,” Abdullah told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

Passport offices are one of the busiest and most overwhelmed government departments in the Kurdistan Region. Residents in Halabja will no longer need to travel long distances to access the service.

Halabja was officially recognized by the KRG in 2014 as the Region’s fourth province, splitting from Sulaimani. Since then, however, Halabja has not been fully treated as so by both the KRG and the Federal Government of Iraq.

Halabja is located on Kurdistan’s border with Iran. Its population is estimated to be around 120,000.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany