DIZLE, Iran — Residents of Iran’s Hawraman region are known for being hardy, but locals say younger people are choosing to leave and look for a better life in Europe.
“We could survive and live well until four years ago; neither animals nor agriculture can help us and even we don’t have water for farming,” said farmer Fahmin Husseini.
Hawraman is a rural, green area within Iran’s Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces. Most of the population survives on farming, making handicrafts and tourism. Some locals say that Iranian authorities have deliberately ignored the area.
Lower migration numbers were expected in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although there are no official numbers on the number of people leaving, locals say the reality is quite the opposite.
“Despite the threats of this pandemic, people dare to take risks and try to take advantage of loose border restrictions. We are not even considered as a third or fourth-class citizens in Iran,” said Shwan Amini.
Iran, particularly its Kurdish areas, have been hard-hit by economic sanctions since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Many Iranian Kurds are pushed into becoming kolbars, semi-legal porters who carry goods on their backs across the mountains to the Kurdistan Region. Many are shot by Iranian border guards or die in harsh weather conditions.
People say they are ready to put their families under further financial strain to send their children to Europe.
“There are some families who borrow money for their children to go to Europe to have a better economic situation,” said shopkeeper Mansour Karimi.
“Our people to go to Bosnia and the Bosnian people used to offer them assistance. Now they take a different route via Croatia, but the Croatians increased border police, and almost every day they take the refugees, beat them, break their phones and steal their money,” local Osman Husseini told Rudaw.
Translation by Saeed Omar
