Politics

KRG offers online service to facilitate regional travel amid lockdown

The move comes as Kurdistan Region authorities seek to slowly ease regionwide restrictions put in motion to contain COVID-19.

Kurdistan 24 2020/04/18 17:11

kurdistan Kurdistan Erbil COVID19 KRG

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region Interior Ministry on Saturday launched an online webpage through which citizens will be able to apply for a permit to allow travel between different districts and provinces in the autonomous region amid a coronavirus lockdown.

Individuals hoping to travel can obtain a document by filling out a form on the page with the necessary information the ministry requests, including the starting and final locations and the stated purpose of travel.

After submitting the form, the Interior Ministry would review it and notify the applicant through their phone or email when their permit has been approved.

The move comes as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) works to slowly ease restrictions that aim to stem the spread of the new coronavirus disease. The measures include a curfew that first came into effect on March 13 but has since been extended and expanded in its scope multiple times.

There are two kinds of permits, read an Interior Ministry statement. The first one is for movement between different districts within a province or independent administration, and the second one is for inter-provincial travel.

The form includes Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja provinces and Garmiyan and Raparin administrations, which are areas that are unofficial provinces in the region.

The travel licenses are limited to the most urgent cases, the ministry noted.

The total number of people with the coronavirus disease in the Kurdistan Region has reached 337, a Health Ministry statement said on Saturday. Out of the total, 244 have recovered, while four have succumbed to the infection.

Despite the low average rate of daily infections over the past few weeks, senior KRG officials have stressed that the disease, formally known as COVID-19, remains a grave threat to public health.