Five kolbars dead, 10 missing amid heavy snow on mountainous Iraq-Iran border

These are kolbars, semi-legal Kurdish porters who carry goods on their backs across the Iraq-Iran border to make a meagre living.

Five kolbars died last week in Mariwan province, Iran following heavy snow. More than 10 are missing.

Farhad Khusrawi, 14, and Azad Khusrawi ,17, went to work on Hawraman's snow-covered Tete mountain on Tuesday. They froze to death after getting lost in a blizzard.

Azad was found dead on Wednesday. Farhad was not found until Friday afternoon.

Scenes like this play out on a daily basis along the porous border. Boys and men are driven to smuggling because of high poverty and unemployment rates in the Kurdish areas of northwestern Iran.

Such hardships are compounded by US sanctions that have constricted the Iranian economy. Kolbars on the mountainside say life has been made more difficult since US President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions last year.