Kurdistan's new exodus

In the 1990s, Zakho was the center of a haven set up by British and American military forces to protect the Kurds from attack by then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. More than a million Kurds fled. When Saddam's regime was toppled in 2003, Kurds flooded home hoping to build a new life – and possibly a new country.

Now people are leaving again.

Early last year, the government in Baghdad cut the Kurds' share of the budget. A global oil price slump, attacks by Islamic State, and chaos in the rest of the country have made life increasingly difficult. "Until last year I never thought I would leave Kurdistan," said 27-year-old Aydin Hassan. "But things have deteriorated so much that there is nothing left for me here anymore."

Most leave through places such as Zakho on Iraq's porous northern border, long a smuggling hub. During Saddam's time, when Iraq was under international sanctions, Kurds smuggled truckloads of oil across the border and imported goods such as cigarettes, alcohol and guns, in defiance of the embargo.

Today the most profitable cargo is human. Helping people leave is "the best way to earn money," said one Kurdish smuggler who has been in the business for nearly three decades. "We always want to minimize the dangers so we get all the money that we have agreed on," said the smuggler. "But sometimes it is out of our hands."

 

(Reuters)