Mohammed Rahmani, who is from the city of Baneh in Iran’s Kurdistan province, was injured on Sunday when border guards opened fire on him.
“The kolbar was shot today, and was taken into a hospital in Sanandaj for treatment,” Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) founder Rebin Rahmani (not related to Mohammed) told Rudaw English on Sunday.
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.
On Wednesday, a 27 year old kolbar was shot dead by border guards in Sarpol-e Zahab in Iran’s Kermanshah province.
“Ghobad Rahmani was the father of two children and up till now his family have not received his body back as Iranian security says that his friends took the goods he had on him,” Rebin said. “They say they would only give back his body if they get the goods the kolbar had on him.”
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.
Video footage shared by KHRN on twitter on Thursday appears to show border guards raiding the houses of kolbars and confiscating their belongings.
Amensty International addressed the brutal treatment kolbars face in their 2020 human rights report released in April.The border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran have attacked the houses of some Kurdish #kolbars in Nowsud, Kermanshah province, on 26 May, and violently confiscated their belongings. In other cases, they have confiscated belongings after killing the kolbars. pic.twitter.com/9NV9vKi2cR
— Kurdistan Human Rights Network (@KurdistanHRN_En) May 27, 2021
“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.
“The kolbar situation remains extremely distressing every year,” Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher and lawyer told Rudaw English on April 7. “The culture of impunity means the perpetrators do not have any fear of facing consequences for their actions.”
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.
The KHRN in their monthly report said that two kolbars had lost their lives in border areas in April while 13 were wounded “either as a result of incidents, torture, or being shot by Iranian military forces.”
