They violated the residency conditions ... The deportation of more than 8,000 Asian workers from Iraq

The Iraqi authorities have deported more than eight thousand Asian workers who violate the residency requirements, in a move that would provide an opportunity for Iraqis to find work opportunities, in a country suffering from a high unemployment rate, especially among young people.

"In implementation of the order of Minister of Interior Othman Al-Ghanimi and the follow-up of the Director General of Civil Status, Major General Riyad Jundi, the Residency Department has deported foreign violators, whose number reached 8,039 of Asian nationalities, in violation of the foreigners' residency law," a statement by the Ministry of Interior stated.

The statement added that the deportees were working on an investment project in the capital, Baghdad, and this process would generate revenues of 9 billion and 148 million dinars, or about 8 million dollars.

An official in the Interior Ministry, who refused to be named, explained that these revenues were realized from the fines that the project owner was forced to pay.  According to the official in the Interior Ministry, the violators were removed from the Bismayah residential project, the largest residential project, located ten kilometers southeast of the capital.

Most of the contractors and investors prefer to bring in Asian labor because of the low cost of labor in these countries.  But they often stop renewing their legal residency and papers, which renders them illegal. The Ministry considered what has been achieved as a great achievement to supplement the budget and provide job opportunities for Iraqi youth.

According to the latest census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Baghdad last August, the unemployment rate among youth in Iraq reached 22.6%. Iraq suffers from a difficult economic situation amid the collapse of crude prices in global markets, which was more than 90 percent of the revenues in the country's budget.

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