The British government has launched an advertising campaign targeting the Kurdish region of Iraq, warning residents not to attempt to travel to the UK to seek asylum.
The online campaign, issued by the Home Office in Sorani Kurdish, aims to deter people from attempting to cross the sea from France to the UK, a dangerous path that 36,816 people took in 2024, with 69 losing their lives in the process.
More than 2,000 of those attempting the crossing came from Iraq.
The ads highlight the dangers posed by the crossing, quoting some of those who attempted the journey warning that “people disappeared into the sea” and that the transport was too crowded.
One woman in a video, her identity obscured, says she was “was promised a well-paid job – instead I was a slave”.
“Immigrants tell you illegal immigration to the UK is a risk-free and easy task and can provide you a happy life here,” reads one of the ads. “But this statement is far from the truth.”
Immigration has been a hot issue in the UK in recent years, with the frequent asylum-seeker crossings across the English Channel sparking a panic about “illegal” entry into the country.
On 2 March alone, 592 migrants made the journey across the busy shipping lane in 11 boats, the highest number on a single day so far this year.
Iraq’s Kurdistan region has been a prominent source of migration to the UK and Europe as a whole in recent years.
The semi-autonomous region has been suffering from severe problems around unemployment, corruption and the non-payment of wages. People have also fled the country following threats by armed groups and repression by the ruling Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Over the past few years, a number of travel agencies in Kurdistan have advertised travel to the borders of Europe, from where people can pay thousands of dollars to smugglers to cross to Western Europe.
In November, the UK and Iraq signed what they called a “world-first” security agreement to crack down on smuggling and strengthen border security.
The Home Office said that around £300,000 from the UK Integrated Security Fund would be spent on training at the border to counter organised immigration crime and drug trafficking.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the agreement would help tackle the “evil trade in human lives”.
“There are smuggler gangs profiting from dangerous small boat crossings whose operations stretch back through northern France, Germany, across Europe, to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and beyond,” Cooper said.
“Organised criminals operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to operate across borders too.”
Rights groups and refugee campaigners in the UK have criticised policies brought in by successive governments that have restricted the ability of asylum seekers to travel to the country through safe and legal means.
New guidance issued by the Labour government last month said that anyone who enters the UK illegally having made a dangerous journey would normally be refused citizenship.
This led some commentators to suggest the UK could be in violation of its obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
