ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish member of the Iranian parliament from West Azerbaijan province’s Mahabad city criticized state killings of semi-legal porters or kolbars in border areas, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, every year we see hundreds of workers and sookhtbars killed and injured, and hundreds of children, minors and many families are punished,” the MP, Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, told Kurdpress, a media outlet supported by the government, in an interview.
Sookhtbars are traders that carry untaxed fuel across the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan to make a living in the Baloch area of southeast Iran, one of the most impoverished parts of the country.
Mahmoudzadeh had addressed the minister of interior in parliament saying “Why do not you stop killing and injuring kolbars and sookhtbars? When are you going to organize cross-border exchanges and establish kolbari cooperatives?” as quoted by Kurdpress.
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.
"The lack of job-creating efforts and the lack of employment for young people to provide for the family have caused people in the border areas to turn to kolbari and sookhtbari,” Mahmoudzadeh told Kurdpress in the interview.
Families of kolbars are among the main victims of these attacks by Iranian border guards, as the transport of goods is their primary source of income.
According to data compiled by Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) for the first ten months of this year, at least 39 kolbars died and at least 100 were wounded by various incidents, including shootings by border guards, accidents and sicknesses.
An estimated 52 kolbars were killed and 147 injured in 2020, according to data given to Rudaw English by KHRN. Forty-six of those killed were shot by Iranian or Turkish border guards.
Iranian state media (IRNA) in April said a plan was presented in parliament regarding amending laws and punishments for kolbars. Authorities are making efforts to legalize the profession to “strengthen the economy and deprived people,” added IRNA.
Additional reporting by Rawchi Hassan
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