Ship Carrying Kurdish Immigrants Runs Aground Italian Coast 
October 19, 2001 

ROME, Italy (Brayeti/GULAN)— A boat carrying more than 400 hundred illegal
immigrants, most of them believed to be Iraqi Kurds, has run aground off southern Italy. 

According to the rescue workers the refugees’ general physical condition was deplorable as
they were forced to remain on board with no food for more than a week. Officials say that
the immigrants include 69 women and 34 children. One of the women, a twenty-one
-year-old mother, is reported to have died during the voyage. 

The immigrants are believed to apply for asylum in Europe since it is unlikely that Italy
would deport them straight to Iraq. 

This is not the first time that Kurds try to escape Iraq and apply for asylum in Europe. Most
of these people escape both political and economic unrest in Iraq and seek a better future for
themselves and their families in the rich countries of Western Europe. 

Kurdish Regional Government’s Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani and his Cabinet are
aware of the problem of migration and have addressed the issue in the past. Mr Barzani has
on various occasions told that Kurdistan, as any other country, needs its people and has
repeatedly urged the people not to abandon their country. In his recent trip to Europe earlier
this year Nechirvan Barzani discussed the Kurdish refugee problem with high European
officials. 

The UN economic sanctions against Iraq have resulted in the formation of a new kind of
poverty in Iraq. Before the sanctions Iraq was considered to be one of the wealthy countries
in the region with high economic growth. 

It is also worth mentioning that despite the sanctions, economic and political conditions are
more endurable in the North of Iraq were there is a regional Kurdish rule than the rest of the
country. 
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