Iraq Interior Ministry invites probe into minority recruitment

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq's Interior Ministry has asked parliament to send a fact-finding committee to review recruitment at its colleges and institutes after MP Waad Qaddo accused the ministry of excluding members of the country's ethnic and religious minorities.

In a statement, the ministry clarified that its recruitment directorate relies on electronic systems and professional standards based on competence, physical fitness, and meeting legal requirements, without unfairness or selectivity. It said it applies the quotas set aside for Iraq's minorities, including Christians, Shabak, Yazidis, Sabean-Mandaeans, and Feyli Kurds, to keep hiring balanced across provinces.

Qaddo, an MP representing the Shabak community, accused the directorate on Monday of “deliberate unfairness and neglect toward minority applicants,” and urged the prime minister to step in.

He said he had logged numerous concerns about the panels that screen and interview applicants to the Higher Institute, the Police College, and the officer-training program, and that the unfairness he alleged reached beyond minorities to all Iraqis.

The ministry said it was fully prepared to open all its data, statistics, and lists of applicants and successful candidates to the parliamentary committee, so the figures could be checked against the quotas and the laws in force.