KARBALA: Rami, a Syrian worker in Iraq, spends his 16-hour shifts at a restaurant fearing arrest as authorities crack down on undocumented migrants in the country better known for its own exodus.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of foreigners working without permits in Iraq, which after emerging from decades of conflict has become an unexpected destination for many seeking opportunities.
“I’ve been able to avoid the security forces and checkpoints,” said the 27-year-old, who has lived in Iraq for seven years and asked that AFP use a pseudonym to protect his identity.
Between 10 in the morning and 2:00 am the next day, he toils at a shawarma shop in the holy city of Karbala, where millions of Shiite pilgrims congregate every year.
“My greatest fear is to be expelled back to Syria where I’d have to do military service,” he said.
The labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers.
Now the authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers, as the country seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector.
Many like Rami work in the service industry in Iraq.
One Baghdad restaurant owner admitted to AFP that he has to play cat and mouse with the authorities during inspections, asking some employees to make themselves scarce.
Not all those who work for him are registered, he said, because of the costly fees involved.
Some of the undocumented workers in Iraq first came as pilgrims. In July, Labour Minister Ahmed Assadi said his services were investigating information that “50,000 Pakistani visitors” stayed on “to work illegally.”
Despite threats of expulsion because of the scale of issue, the authorities at the end of November launched a scheme for “Syrian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers” to regularise their employment by applying online before December 25.
The ministry says it will take legal action against anyone who brings in or employs undocumented foreign workers.
Rami has decided to play safe, even though “I really want” to acquire legal employment status.
“But I’m afraid,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what my friends do, and then I’ll do the same.”
Current Iraqi law caps the number of foreign workers a company can employ at 50 percent, but the authorities now want to lower this to 30 percent.
“Today we allow in only qualified workers for jobs requiring skills” that are not currently available, labor ministry spokesman Nijm Al-Aqabi told AFP.
It’s a sensitive issue — for the past two decades, even the powerful oil sector has been dominated by a foreign workforce. But now the authorities are seeking to favor Iraqis.
“There are large companies contracted to the government” which have been asked to limit “foreign worker numbers to 30 percent,” said Aqabi.
“This is in the interests of the domestic labor market,” he said, as 1.6 million Iraqis are unemployed.
He recognized that each household has the right to employ a foreign domestic worker, claiming this was work Iraqis did not want to do.
One agency launched in 2021 that brings in domestic workers from Niger, Ghana and Ethiopia confirms the high demand.
“Before we used to bring in 40 women, but now it’s around 100” a year, said an employee at the agency, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was a trend picked up from rich countries in the Gulf, the employee said.
“The situation in Iraq is getting better, and with salaries now higher, Iraqi home owners are looking for comfort.”
A domestic worker earns about $230 a month, but the authorities have quintupled the registration fee, with a work permit now costing more than $800.
In the summer, Human Rights Watch denounced what it called a campaign of arbitrary arrests and expulsions targeting Syrians, even those with the necessary paperwork.
HRW said that both homes and work places had been targeted by raids.
Ahmed — another pseudonym — is a 31-year-old Syrian who has been undocumented in Iraq for the past year and a half.
He began as a cook in Baghdad and later moved to Karbala.
“Life is hard here — we don’t have any rights,” he told AFP. “We come in illegally, and the security forces are after us.”
His wife did not accompany him. She stayed in Syria.
“I’d go back if I could,” said Ahmed. “But life there is very difficult. There’s no work.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday reiterated his country's "unwavering" support for the Palestinians' right to self-determination, Sharif's office said, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is a UN-organized observance, with events held at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York and its offices in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.
In a statement issued from his office, Sharif said the last one year marked a "deeply disturbing moment" in the history of Palestine in the wake of Israel's brutal aggression in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
"The Palestinian people have been bravely enduring a campaign of unending genocidal violence with indiscriminate attacks, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment that constitute a flagrant violation of human dignity, human rights, and international law," he said.
"On behalf of the people of Pakistan, I reaffirm our complete solidarity with the valiant and resilient Palestinian people. We will continue to stand by you in your just and rightful pursuit of peace, dignity, and right to self-determination."
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters.”
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza that has claimed over 43,000 lives, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other multilateral platforms and demanded international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza. The South Asian country has also dispatched several aid consignments for the Palestinians.
Sharif said Israel's violations of international humanitarian law had crippled the humanitarian response in Gaza, calling on the international community to act "swiftly and decisively" to impose an immediate halt to Israel's atrocities, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, hospitals, schools, and critical infrastructure.
"The repeated assaults on humanitarian aid convoys and essential services are unconscionable. The failure to hold Israel accountable for these grave war crimes and violations of human rights will perpetuate the impunity, with which Israel has unleashed its destruction in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon," he said.
"Pakistan further calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and stresses the urgency of ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people."