Iraq – Protection Risks and Concerns Among Travellers Crossing for Work (December 2022 - February 2023)

DTM Iraq collects data at border crossing points with neighbouring countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria) and the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye) – to better understand migration movements in the Middle East. Cross-border monitoring is designed to capture and describe migration flows. Data displayed in this report were collected employing two approaches: a headcount of all travellers entering or leaving Iraq and a survey of randomly selected travellers. Data collection took place between 1 December 2022 and 28 February 2023. Further details on the survey methodology, selection of respondents and border crossing points are available in the Methodological Overview on the DTM website. 

From December 2022 to February 2023, Ibrahim al Khalil saw the most traffic with a total of 90,586 travellers and 16,864 vehicles passing through the border crossing point, whilst Al-Shalamcha saw the least traffic with 6,149 travellers and no vehicles permitted to cross. Most travellers were males and middle-aged (35–60 years old) crossing an international border for a journey lasting less than three months. The majority of travellers have a secondary or vocational education degree, with self-employment and private sector employment being the main employment statuses. A small proportion of travellers were looking for work or had received a job offer (6% of incoming travellers and 4% of outgoing travellers). Regarding protection risks, one per cent of travellers entered Iraq for humanitarian reasons, and less than one per cent entered Iraq with a group of unknown people. It was observed that the number of people crossing the border drastically dropped a day after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on 6 February 2023. The border monitoring team also reported various types of vehicles transporting relief for people affected by the Earthquake in Türkiye and Syria crossing Ibrahim Al-Khalil border point.