Iran
Kolbars adjust their loads high in the Hawraman mountains on the Kurdistan Region-Iran border on May 12, 2017. Photo: Fazel Hawramy/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan region - Iranian border guards on Thursday fatally shot a kolbar within the borders of the Kurdistan Region, a human rights watchdog reported.
Iranian border guards “the border of Sardasht opened fire, using DShk rifles, on a group of Kolbars, inside the territory of the Kurdistan region,” reported Hengaw organization for Human Rights.
Salar Ahmadi, 23, lost his life in the shooting, and his body has yet to be returned to his family.
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 kolbars are pushed into the dangerous work by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, particularly in Iran's impoverished Kurdish provinces.
According to Hengaw, Iranian border guards have killed at least five kolbars by direct fire since the beginning of May.
In its annual report on human rights violations in Iran for 2023, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network said that a total of 29 kolbars died last year. At least 19 of them were killed by Iranian border guards.
Hengaw estimated 33 kolbars lost their lives and 176 others were wounded as a result of direct fire from Iranian forces in 2023 and at least 35 fell victim to accidents.
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