Over 30 migrants stranded in Lithuania set to arrive in Erbil: Official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A repatriation flight carrying over 30 migrants stranded in the eastern European country of Lithuania will touch down in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil Sunday afternoon, an official told Kurdistan 24.

The flight would bring back 34 migrants who are mostly from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and will arrive at 3:30 (local time) at the Erbil International Airport, Halgurd Salayi, an official from the Region’s department of foreign relations told Kurdistan 24.

This is the first repatriation flight conducted from Lithuania to Kurdistan Region.

The migrants were stranded in the Baltic country as they were attempting to reach one of the member states of the European Union to claim asylum.

Thousands of migrants have so far returned to Iraq and its Kurdish region after many failed attempts to reach their target country.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says that the migrants are the victims of human smuggling networks, against which it had taken numerous actions to curb illegal traveling.

In November, a dinghy carrying over 30 migrants mostly from the Kurdistan Region drowned in the English Channel en-route to illegally cross into the UK from France’s Calais. Seventeen out of the passengers were Kurds, including women and children.