"Smuggling Syrians from Erbil to Baghdad: False promises of work and women as victims of commodification and trafficking" 22 January 2026

This investigation reveals how Syrian women and men fall victim to “dream sellers” from recruitment companies and brokers... Through the testimonies of victims and those involved, it highlights patterns of exploitation... and shows the intersection of roles between corrupt beneficiaries and influential parties... They take advantage of weak oversight of the labor market... A Facebook ad for a recruitment agency offers jobs in Iraq with an attractive salary of $1,000, plus free room and board, and the chance for a better life... But instead of an employment agency, she found herself in an apartment. “There, they took all my papers...” Ghada rejected options that conflicted with her beliefs and accepted work in domestic service. She felt like she belonged to the company owner who controlled her fate... She was offered a job in a cosmetics store, but the operator doubled the approved amount in exchange for transferring her to the store owner with her identity papers. Ghada says, “They tried to sell me for $3,000, but the deal fell through, so he hit me and broke my nose,” referring to the operator...

Syrians make up 90 percent of refugees and asylum seekers in Iraq, most of whom live primarily in the Kurdistan Region. What Ghada experienced meets the criteria for forced labor or labor trafficking, both in terms of the acts and means involved, which include fraud, psychological coercion and threats of force, confiscation of identity documents, and manipulation of debts and payments. This crime can occur in various fields and professions, most often in restaurants, hotels, massage and beauty salons, and shops. Nesma emphasized the role of social media platforms in marketing job opportunities and promoting a misleading stereotypical image of a “luxurious life” in Iraq, and in reproducing the image of Syrian women as fragile and easily exploited, creating a fertile environment for extortion... Monitoring of some groups and accounts on social media revealed a high volume of posts in the form of job advertisements from employment agencies or commercial companies. It turned out that part of this activity falls under what Joan Al-Hamdani, director of the Aman project to combat human trafficking and participant in the preparation of the national strategy to combat human trafficking, described as “electronic recruitment”...

After verifying the names of these companies through the websites of the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities, as well as through communication with the Syrian Ministry of Labor, it became clear that some of these offices are not officially registered and do not have legal licenses. This was confirmed by Al-Hamdani, who pointed out that “In Iraq, unfortunately, there are some unlicensed recruitment companies or agencies, and even fake agencies”... The victims have no information about them; neither the name of the company owner nor a clear address, which makes it impossible for the judge himself to reach them,“ adding that these agencies ” trafficking Syrian workers for the benefit of employers," which puts victims in a vulnerable position where they are not protected by any legal framework, allowing these agencies to escape legal accountability... Iraq is not a signatory to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families, which puts migrant workers, including Syrians, in a legally weaker position...

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[Unofficial translation from Arabic to English provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]