‼A Kurdish journalist arrived in Belarus by plane and asked for asylum. He was immediately deported from the country. One of the main independent media in Belarus – Zerkalo, talked to him.‼

Iraqi Kurd, Rebin Sirvan Majid, a 29-year-old journalist, tried to enter the European Union through Belarus. According to him, when he decided to ask for asylum in Belarus, instead of going to the EU, the representatives of the authorities had beaten him and immediately forcibly escorted him out of the country.

‼Paid $4.000, flew through Syria‼
«I am 29 years old, I was born in the city of Erbil (the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan). Now I live in Sulaymaniyah because of fears for my safety. The fact is that I work in one of the democratic media, including those covering politics, and for my activities, I was imprisoned and beaten many times. We show how the system of power in Kurdistan really works, and because of this, we face serious problems. I’m often threatened with death, and for this reason, it has become impossible to work further. That’s why I decided to go to Europe».
According to Rebin, many people in Iraqi Kurdistan face similar problems – this is what makes them risk everything going to Belarus.

«The people of Iraqi Kurdistan are tired of the existing system. There is no freedom, the economy is destroyed. In fact, the entire economy of the six-million region is owned by two families who completely control it and extract all the money. Most citizens live in poverty, many people with higher education can’t get a normal job. Journalistic work is also impossible – we are constantly threatened with murder. I think Iraqi Kurdistan can live better, but now the situation is very bad.
After learning about the possibility of getting into the EU through Belarus, Rebin Sirvan decided to leave Iraq. According to him, the scheme by which migrants get to Belarus is very simple. The only thing you need to have is a large amount of money.

«My journey was organized through a ‘tourist’ scheme. I applied for a Belarusian visa with the help of a tourist agency, paying them 4 thousand dollars. As far as I know, this company belongs to the family of Bashar al-Assad – now they earn on this. At the beginning of October, I already had all the documents. I went to Baghdad, from where I flew to Syria, and from Syria to Belarus. The whole trip took six days: I spent one of them in Baghdad, five in Syria. On October 18, I was in Minsk. Why didn’t I choose the legal way to immigrate? For an Iraqi citizen, it is almost impossible – it’s very difficult for us to obtain a visa from one of the European countries. So we just have to choose illegal paths».
When asked where migrants have such serious sums of money from, the journalist answered that they usually sell everything they have to leave: housing, cars, business.

‼Most immigrants say they would rather die in these forests than return to Iraq.‼
Rebin spent several weeks in Minsk trying to make his way to Europe. However, he failed to cross the border.
«When I realized that it would not be possible to leave Belarus because of the difficulty of the route, I decided to apply for international protection here. I couldn’t go back to Iraq – I feared for my life. I contacted the Belarusian Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, where I was sent to the Belarusian migration agency. But as soon as I came to them and said I wanted to ask for protection, they said I would be deported. No one listened to my words that I am a journalist and could die in Iraq. When I tried to argue, I was immediately beaten with a stun gun. They didn’t even let me pack up, they didn’t test me for coronavirus — they just took me to the airport and forced me to board the first plane to Damascus. The whole ‘deportation’ procedure took approximately two hours».