Senior Iraqi official calls for repatriating Iraqi nationals from Ukraine

Shafaq News / The spokesman for the Iraqi ministry of migration, Ali Abbas Jahangir, said today that evacuating Iraqi citizens from Ukraine concerns the ministry of foreign affairs only, which intervenes in cases of emergency.

Jahangir said that his ministry only intervenes if the Iraq community is at risk.

He added that Iraq suspended flights to Ukraine, and advised Iraqi citizens there to leave the country.

For his part, the ministry of foreign affairs spokesman, Ahmed al-Sahhaf, told Shafaq News agency that the ministry is following up on the situation with the Iraqi citizens in Ukraine.

He added that there are about 5500 Iraqi citizens in Ukraine, noting that the Iraqi embassy there is in contact with them and has allocated a new hotline for emergencies.

In an interview with Shafaq News agency, former MP Dhafer al-A'ani said that Baghdad should provide flights from Ukraine to Iraq for Iraqi citizens.

However, the head of the Parliamentary education committee, Miqdam al-Jumaili, indicated that the only solution that Baghdad can resort to in the current situation is to evacuate Iraqi students in Ukraine temporarily, and bring them back to Iraq, in coordination with the Ministry of education and the concerned authorities.