By Farman Chomani
RANYA, Kurdistan Region – Escaping unemployment in their own country, hundreds of Kurdish families from Iran work in menial jobs in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, a fresh reminder of the 1990s when sanctions forced thousands of Iraqi Kurds every year to look for jobs in Iran.
Many of the Iranian families have settled around the border towns of Bitwen and Pishdar in Sulaimani province, where they work in chicken farms and factories making construction materials.
Kordestan Sokhanwar and her husband, who do kitchen work at a sand processing plant near the town of Ranya, arrived from Piranshahr. Sokhanwar, 25, earns 700,000 Iraqi dinars ($607) a month, and says that because of the low value of the Iranian rial, back home that would be the salary for a dream job.
“I am here to earn a living,” Sokhanwar told Rudaw, adding that there were few jobs for women in her home town. “I’m a cook and my husband is a tea man,” she said.
Despite their good earnings, Sokhanwar complained that the couple is not happy with the lack of basic services at the work site, particularly electricity shortages.
“I have no other choice but this job, otherwise life isn’t easy here,” she said. “We’ve only a few hours of electricity every night.”
The influx of Iranian workers to the Kurdistan Region is reminiscent of the early and mid 1990s, when thousands of Iraqi Kurds crossed the border into Iran every year to find work in brick factories, farms and construction due to economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations in 1991.
Seyid Ahmed Ahmedi, a 29-year-old Iranian Kurd, said he heard of the many job opportunities in Iraqi Kurdistan through his friends. But after trying his luck at different odd jobs, he is considering returning home.
“We have passport and residency problems,” he complained. “We have to constantly renew our residency papers. If we miss the deadline, we will be fined 2,000 dinars ($1.5) a day.” Ahmedi hopes that Kurdish authorities will lift such strict restrictions on workers like him who have nowhere else to go.
Kamal Mohammadi, who arrived with his wife from Sardasht and works at a sand factory, said that the Iranian Kurds take jobs that local residents do not want. “There are many jobs here, but no one wants to work. They mostly have government jobs.” he said.
Mohammadi, 30, recalls a time when he could not find work in his own country, thanks to the large number of Iraqi Kurds who used to go Iran for jobs similar to what he is doing today.
Rudaw could not obtain the exact number of Iranian workers in Kurdistan, because there is no official institution keeping records of those who come for work. But Mohammadi estimated that the number is large.
“From my village alone, 31 families are now in the Kurdistan Region,” he said. “I know for sure that around 300 families work in these Kurdish border towns.”
Factory owner Mohammad Kilaj said that by employing Iranian workers at his plant he is paying back an old debt. “I am happy with their work. They do it very well,” Kilaj told Rudaw. “Some years ago they helped us and we must help them today.”
