MARIWAN, Iran — The brothers of Kaiwan Haqmuradi sit in their home, clothed in black. Wails of grief escape them as they sit next to their parents, dazed following the loss of their son, just one of many kolbars killed crossing across the mountainous frontier between Iran and the Kurdistan Region.
The 30-year-old was shot dead on Wednesday by Iranian guards near the border with the Kurdistan Region. From their home in Mariwan’s Kani Dinar, his family are barely processing their loss.
"Kaiwan had just turned 30 years of age. He couldn't proceed with his education because of poverty. He used to work with me at the teahouse, and sometimes he would go to the borders to earn a living " his father, Khaled Haqmuradi, told Rudaw English.
"He got married four years ago and has a two-year-old son. Every time I heard of a kolbar being killed, my heart would drop, and I would ask him to do a different job, but he would always say there is no other job in Mariwan," he added, saying his family needed an income.
Kaiwan met his father at the teahouse on the day of his death, enjoying lunch together before he left for work to guard fellow kolbars at 2pm. Three hours later, his father received a phone call saying Kaiwan had been injured.
"I was hoping for the news to be false, but it was a lie. Border guards had killed my son."
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 border guards in the Kurdish areas in western Iran, and are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, as well as being victims of natural disasters, freezing, and falling from heights.
Next to Khaled sits his wife, Kaiwan’s mother Hasseba. She has taken many jobs to provide for her family, from cooking, collecting plastic to sell, and making Muhallabi – milk pudding famous in the Middle East. But the money was not enough to sustain the family.
"It was past 5 pm when my husband called me and said Kaiwan was shot and injured. My heart started pounding, and I said he was killed," she said. She refused to believe her son was dead, clinging onto hope as a neighbour drove her to the village of Daraki, where she was met by crying kolbars.
It wasn’t until she saw her son hitting himself in grief that she knew Kaiwan was dead.
"I wasn’t aware of myself, I didn't know who was carrying me,” she said, recalling the trip to the village hospital.
Hasseba catches her breath and continues, this time with anger in her voice.
"I know there isn't any law to protect us poor people. My only demand is to stop killing our sons, do not ignite a fire in the chests of mothers, do not leave children fatherless. We don't want anyone else to go through this pain."
Markets in Dizle's village, 30 kilometers to the south of Mariwan, are packed with kolbars buying water for the long trip ahead.
Shorish Amini, 44, who carries a 30-kilogram load on his back, says the profession is "inhumane," with locals pushed into it because of poverty and unemployment.
Kolbars are not only victims of natural disasters and shootings by border guards, but are also plagued by health problems.
Three months into the job, Amini is already facing back and knee problems.
"To work and sleep better, most kolbars have started abusing drugs in the past years," he said.
Kawa Khani, a 27-years-old kolbar told Rudaw English that almost 1,000 kolbars work in the area, and four have died in the past month.
Families of kolbars among primary victims of attacks by Iranian border guards, Iranian forces at times raid their houses and confiscate their goods.
In January, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered the interior and Peshmerga ministries to form a joint force to prevent smuggling at official and unofficial border points.
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.
Translation by Layal Shakir
Video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
