Turkey cracks down on illegal Iraqi immigrants

Ankara, Iraq Press, Aug. 17 - The Turkish authorities are tightening curbs on the influx of
illegal Iraqi immigrants who use its territories as a staging point to Greece and other Western
countries.

More than 300 Iraqi refugees who had entered Turkey without a visa were seized in the past
few days and returned to the semi-independent Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq. The
refugees were on their way to head for either Greece or Italy.

Last month, Turkish policemen rounded up more than 500 others and deported them to the
Kurdish region. Early this month, 60 more Iraqi refugees were apprehended and forced to
return to northern Iraq.

Turkey is under pressure from the European Union to stem the flood of refugees passing
through its territories for asylum in member countries. The measure will undoubtedly please
the EU which is planning membership negotiations with Ankara.

The Kurdish Interior Ministry estimates that more than 1,238 Iraqis were caught in Turkey
and deported to Arbil alone in the past 12 months. Arbil is the Kurdish region's largest city
and the seat of its government.

The Turkish authorities are said to have apprehended more than 2,385 Iraqi refugees and
sent them back to the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniya during the same period.

To stem the growing tide of immigration to Europe, the Kurdish authorities have also
mounted a campaign to root out human trafficking rings which have flourished in the region.

Some 65 smugglers have been put behind bars in both Arbil and Sulaimaniya and the hunt
for remaining traffickers continues. Smugglers face long prison terms and hefty fines if
caught.

But many Kurds believe the latest measures by both Kurdish and Turkish authorities will
not halt the exodus. Conditions in Iraq, politically and economically, are so appalling that
many would prefer to die rather than stay at home.

Stories of Iraqi refugees killed by minefields or perished during their trek on snow-capped
mountains or on board of rickety and rusty ships have done little to prevent Iraqis from
leaving.

Their mass exodus is bound to continue so long as conditions continue to worsen at home.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees estimates that one to two million Iraqis are living outside
Iraq. The majority, it says, would have a well-founded fear of persecution upon return.
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