BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and the administration in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region have been arbitrarily detaining and deporting Syrian refugees to their country, a leading international rights group said Thursday.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it has documented cases in which Iraqi authorities deported Syrians even though they had legal residency or were registered with the UN refugee agency.
The Syrians reported being arrested in raids at their workplace or on the streets, and, in two cases, at residency offices while trying to renew their permits.
According to UNHCR, Iraq hosts at least 260,000 Syrian refugees, with about 90 percent of them living in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. About 60 percent live in urban areas, while the rest are in refugee camps.
Human Rights Watch spoke to seven Syrians in Irbil and Baghdad between April 19 and April 26 who were being deported — including four at the airport in Irbil waiting to be put on a flight, the statement said.
Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher with HRW, said the watchdog was unable to determine the total number of Syrians deported. The group said the deportations have left Syrians in Iraq living in fear.
“By forcibly returning asylum seekers to Syria, Iraq is knowingly placing them in harm’s way,” Sanbar said.
An Iraqi government spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Iraqi authorities have also made it increasingly difficult for Syrians to stay legally in the country.
The Iraqi Kurdish regional government in the north has — at Baghdad’s request — suspended visa entry for Syrian citizens as part of broader efforts to regulate foreign labor in Iraq, restricting the Syrians’ ability to enter the Kurdish region for work or refuge.
Many companies in Iraq employ Syrian workers without legally registering them, making them work long hours for low pay.
New rules in the Iraqi Kurdish region require companies to register Syrian workers and pay social security contributions for them. However, some companies make the employees pay half of the social security fees from their salaries.
A Syrian worker in the Kurdish region told the AP that on-arrival fees for a one-month visa for Syrians used to cost $150. Those visas could be extended for up to a year. She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing she could be deported.
Now, Syrians must be registered with a social security number showing their employer pays taxes on them, he said, otherwise they cannot renew their visas. In Baghdad, a one-year work visa that comes with a social security number costs $2,000.
Host countries that have sheltered Syrian refugees have increasingly pushed for their return home, where the country’s war, now in its 14th year, is mostly frozen along the former front lines. The United Nations and rights groups say Syria remains unsafe for returns.
Human Rights Watch said that in July 2023, returnees from Iraq were reportedly tortured in Syrian military intelligence custody and conscripted into military service.
A leading human rights group calls on Iraq to halt deportations of Syrian refugees
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A leading human rights group calls on Iraq to halt deportations of Syrian refugees
- Human Rights Watch said it has documented cases in which Iraqi authorities deported Syrians even though they had legal residency or were registered with the UN refugee agency
- Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher with HRW, said the watchdog was unable to determine the total number of Syrians deported
Hundreds mourn in Syria’s Homs after deadly mosque bombing
- Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect
HOMS: Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday despite rain and cold outside of a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs where a bombing the day before killed eight people and wounded 18.
The crowd gathered next to the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Dhahab neighborhood, where the population is predominantly from the Alawite minority, before driving in convoys to bury the victims.
Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.
A neighbor of the mosque, who asked to be identified only by the honorific Abu Ahmad (“father of Ahmad“) out of security concerns, said he was at home when he heard the sound of a “very very strong explosion.”
He and other neighbors went to the mosque and saw terrified people running out of it, he said. They entered and began trying to help the wounded, amid blood and scattered body parts on the floor.
While the neighborhood is primarily Alawite, he said the mosque had always been open to members of all sects to pray.
“It’s the house of God,” he said. “The mosque’s door is open to everyone. No one ever asked questions. Whoever wants to enter can enter.”
Mourners were unable to enter the mosque to pray Saturday because the crime scene remained cordoned off, so they prayed outside.
Some then marched through the streets chanting “Ya Ali,” in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law whom Shiite Muslims consider to be his rightful successor.
