Salary delays drive teachers from Kurdistan

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Teachers frustrated at ongoing delays in payment of salaries are joining the ranks of Kurds leaving Iraqi Kurdistan in growing numbers.

Like other civil servants, teachers have suffered as payments of their salaries have been delayed for months, as the Kurdistan Regional Government faces a financial crisis driven by the war against ISIS, plummeting oil prices and an ongoing budget dispute with the federal government in Baghdad.

Since June, over 1,000 teachers have left the country, according to an employee of the Sulaimani department of education, speaking on the sidelines of a demonstration on Salem Street on Tuesday.

Sarbast Kader, a 34-year-old teacher, said he had already tried once to reach Europe but had turned back in Turkey after a disagreement with smugglers.

“Their route was too dangerous,” he said, adding that he hoped to try again to reach somewhere in Europe. “Germany, Britain, anywhere.”

Teachers received a month's salary on Monday, but say they will continue striking until they receive all three month's back pay they are owed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

School director Bakir Shex Salam addressed demonstrators gathered outside the Department of Education on Tuesday. “We've been waiting for months and yesterday they pity us with just one month salary,” he told a crowd of hundreds.

Many in the crowd believed that the Kurdistan Regional Government could find the money to pay civil servants if they had the will.

“It's a fake financial problem,” said teacher Lina Farhad. “We were told there was no money but when we protested, they suddenly found one month's salary for us.”

Most agreed that receiving one month's salary would be insufficient to break the strike. “Delays of up to one month ok, but three?” asked teacher Zhian Saeed Qaradaghi. “It's become a seasonal salary—we're receiving summer's in autumn.”

Qaradaghi said she didn't believe their suffering was appreciated by the politicians: “It makes sense they haven't responded to our strike, their children all go to private schools.”

Aras Salim is a 34-year-old teacher who also tried to reach Europe alongside his friend Kader. He said he was fed up with borrowing money from relatives to pay rent and buying food on credit.

He paused when asked what would happen if all the teachers left the region. “The people who are stealing the oil profits can come in to teach the kids,” he said.