ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The body of a Kurdish kolbar was found near the Iran-Kurdistan Region border a day after he was shot dead, a watchdog said on Sunday.
Hamin Aminpour, 48, was a father of six children and was shot around 4pm on Saturday, a relative told the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, saying they found his bullet-riddled body after an extensive search.
The incident came just days after a group of kolbars were shot at by Iranian border guards in the Hangazhal area of Baneh, according to the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border and sometimes the Iran-Turkey border. They are constantly targeted by Iranian border guards and are sometimes victims of natural disasters. Many are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, particularly in Iran's Kurdish provinces.
At least 21 kolbars were “either killed, lost their lives, or injured” on the border areas in June, the KHRN said in its latest monthly report, adding that of those at least 10 were shot by Iranian, Turkish, or Iraqi border forces.
Last month, a kolbar was killed and another wounded when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) opened fire on them in Hawraman Takht (Uraman Takht) in Kurdistan province.
Families of kolbars are among the main victims of these attacks by Iranian border guards, as the trade is their primary source of income, and Iranian forces at times raid their houses and confiscate their goods.
Amnesty International addressed the brutal treatment kolbars face in their 2020 human rights report released in April.
“Iran's border guards continued to unlawfully shoot scores of unarmed Kurdish kolbars 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.
An estimated 52 kolbars were killed and 147 injured in 2020, according to data given to Rudaw English by the KHRN. Forty-six of those killed were shot by Iranian or Turkish border guards.
