ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish kolbars are being “unlawfully” shot while working under “cruel and inhumane conditions,” Amnesty International said in its 2020 human rights report released on Wednesday, slamming Iran for its “entrenched discrimination” of ethnic minorities.
“Iran's border guards continued to unlawfully shoot scores of unarmed Kurdish kulbars who work, under cruel and inhumane conditions, as cross-border porters between the Kurdistan regions of Iran and Iraq, killing at least 40 men and injuring dozens of others,” the human rights watchdog said, sourcing Kurdish human rights organizations.
Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border. They are constantly being targeted by Iranian border guards as well as being victims of natural disasters. Many are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, particularly in Iran's Kurdish provinces.
“The kolbar situation remains extremely distressing every year,” Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher and lawyer told Rudaw English on Wednesday. “The culture of impunity means the perpetrators do not have any fear of facing consequences for their actions.”
According to monthly reports by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), ten kolbars have died since January, of which two died at the hands of Turkish and Iranian guards, in addition to 14 injured as a result of gunshot by Iranian border guards .No injuries or deaths were reported in February.
An estimated 52 kolbars were killed in 2020 and 147 were injured, 46 of whom were shot by shootings of Iranian and Turkish border guards, according to data given to Rudaw English by KHRN.
The Amnesty report added that ethnic minorities - Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen - in Iran “face entrenched discrimination curtailing their access to education, employment, adequate housing and political office.”
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Amnesty also slammed Iran for “continued under-investment in minority-populated regions” which resulted in “exacerbated poverty and marginalization.”
“The Iranian authority doesn’t want the international community to know about the situation of human rights in Iran. They don’t allow the free flow of information. In this situation, international organizations play a key role in raising as awareness about the dire rights situation Iran and in standing solidarity," Bahreni added.
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