Cairo: Iraq deported over 33,000 foreigners last year for violating the country’s residency rules, a security official has said.
“The number of foreign violators, arrested in 2020 and deported to outside the country, totaled 33,164 for violating the residency law,” Brig. Qusay Sobeih, the chief of residency department at the Iraqi Directorate of Civil Affairs, Passports and Residency.
Full curfew
“The arrests and deportation were carried out through efficient efforts despite measures of partial or full curfew imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic,” he told the official Iraqi news agency INA without providing a breakdown.
Iraq, a country of around 39 million population, is experiencing an economic crisis as a result of the virus outbreak and a fall in prices of oil, which is its main source of income.
