Iraq tightens grip on foreign fighter recruitment amid Ukraine war

BAGHDAD –

Iraq’s top judicial authority has warned that citizens who join foreign armed forces without government approval face prison, as Baghdad moves to contain a growing trend of Iraqis being recruited to fight in overseas conflicts, notably in Ukraine.

The reminder by the President of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zaidan on Wednesday comes amid heightened legal and security alert after reports of increased attempts to recruit young Iraqis to fight in Ukraine, particularly alongside Russian forces or affiliated contractors.

Officials say the drive to curb recruitment is inseparable from Iraq’s grim economic reality, with high unemployment leaving young people vulnerable to human trafficking networks that exploit financial hardship.

Zaidan met National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji on Wednesday, alongside a government committee tasked with combating the recruitment of Iraqis to fight in Russia, to discuss ways of addressing the status of citizens implicated in the Ukraine war, according to a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council carried by the state news agency INA.

The move reflects Baghdad’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty and prevent Iraqis from being used as “mercenaries” in international conflicts. It also underscores Iraq’s stated policy of distancing itself from external military blocs and avoiding the international prosecution of its citizens for unlawful combat.

In September, a criminal court in the southern province of Najaf sentenced an Iraqi national to life imprisonment for “human trafficking” after convicting him of forming groups and sending them to fight abroad in exchange for money. Iraqi media reported that those sent were deployed to fight alongside Russia against Ukraine.

Article 165 of Iraq’s penal code stipulates prison terms for anyone who, without government permission, mobilises forces against a foreign state, takes up arms against it, or joins the armed forces of another country at war. The penalty can be increased to life imprisonment or death if the offence targets an Arab state or leads to a state of war involving Iraq.

Russia launched its military offensive against neighbouring Ukraine on February 24, 2022, saying it would end the campaign if Kyiv abandoned ambitions to join Western military alliances, conditions Ukraine has rejected as interference.

International media have reported cases of citizens from several Arab countries being recruited to fight with Russian forces in Ukraine, lured by incentives such as residency or Russian citizenship. The reports have raised alarm across the region about illegal recruitment networks operating outside the law.

While Iraqi authorities are seeking to clamp down on the phenomenon, officials acknowledge that enforcement alone is insufficient. Addressing the root causes, chiefly unemployment, remains the central challenge, as legal deterrence needs to be matched by real job opportunities to shield young people from “external temptations” marketed as migration or security work.

Recruitment networks are said to offer dollar payments far exceeding potential local earnings, alongside promises of Russian citizenship for fighters and their families, and large compensation in the event of injury or death, offers that some see as a passage to a new life away from domestic pressures.