Shafaq News- Erbil

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) completed arrangements to bring home 33 Kurdistan Region residents from Libya next week, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry and the Department of Foreign Relations were tasked with locating, rescuing, and returning the group after reports emerged that they had gone missing in Libya. According to the ministry, the group endured difficult conditions in Libya, with some spending eight months in prison and repeatedly facing threats to their lives.

The KRG urged young people and their families to avoid irregular migration routes to Western countries, warning that such journeys put their lives at risk and could expose them to legal consequences for violating other countries’ laws.

The ministry said the KRG has so far rescued and returned 302 irregular migrants to the Kurdistan Region.

International Organization for Migration data show that more than 221,000 people have been affected by human trafficking, with Iraq serving as both a source and destination country.

In the first quarter of 2026, Iraq’s Interior Ministry dismantled 36 organized crime networks involved in human trafficking, migrant smuggling and organ trafficking.

Read more: 2.3K lives lost: Iraq's grim toll of human trafficking