Kurdistan repatriates 40 citizens from Libya’s detention camps

Forty citizens from the Kurdistan Region returned home on Sunday after detention in Libya, where survivors reported severe beatings, starvation, and inadequate medical care that led to one migrant’s death. The Kurdistan Regional Government arranged their repatriation from facilities where detainees received one small bread loaf daily and no medical attention, despite widespread illness.

One returnee described witnessing guards beat his friend for three days until his body turned black and blue. Another survivor said a companion died three or four days before their release because authorities refused medical treatment. The government provided examinations at Erbil International Airport before reuniting the group with relatives.

Iraq’s embassy in Tripoli repatriated a separate group of 40 Kurdish migrants on Saturday and plans to bring home 35 more in the coming weeks. The charge d’affaires praised cooperation with regional officials after the mission returned 122 Iraqi migrants since reopening. Libya serves as a transit hub where smuggling networks exploit the chaos following Muammar Gaddafi’s 2011 removal to traffic desperate people toward Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.