In recent months, the violence of the Iranian regime’s border guards against Kurdish kolbar (porter)has increased, and in May alone, six kolbars were killed.
Kolbars are individuals who carry goods and merchandise from neighboring countries into Iran. Due to the difficult routes, these loads are carried on their backs, and each kolbar receives a very small amount that barely sustains their survival. This work is very common in the border areas of Iran because the Iranian regime does not provide any facilities or jobs for the youth in these regions, and instead, the share of the people in these areas is the bullets of the regime’s security forces.
Most of these individuals are found in the western and southeastern regions of Iran.
The issue of “illegal” import and export of goods in Iran is not limited to a specific border or region. According to the officials of the Iranian regime, smuggling of goods occurs not only through illegal borders but also through official gates, docks, and even airports. The type and volume of smuggling depend on many factors. It is unclear what the share of Kurdish border kolbars in the volume of smuggled goods is, but officials have often described it as “insignificant.” Nevertheless, it is evident that they, along with Baluchi fuel carriers, bear the highest human cost of “goods smuggling.”
However, the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are considered some of the largest smugglers of drugs, oil, and other goods both inside and outside Iran. And they are never held to account for their smuggling activities.
According to human rights networks, in recent months, the level of violence by the Iranian regime’s border guards against kolbars and traders has increased significantly.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that in just the three months of March, April, and May, 17 kolbars were killed in the border areas of Iran and Iraq from gunfire by the Iranian regime’s border guards, and dozens of people, including several child kolbars, were injured.
The shooting of kolbars and border traders by Iranian border guards is not a new occurrence. Over the past two decades, the rate of shooting by the Iranian regime’s forces towards kolbars and border traders has increased significantly.
Ahmed Shaheed, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, described the killing of kulbars by the Iranian regime as “systematic” in 2013. He stated in his report that the agents shoot kulbars without any warning, a practice that continues to this day, as confirmed by human rights networks.
Many of the individuals engaged in kolbar activities are educated people who cannot find any jobs.
According to a report by Kolbar News, in 2023, at least 44 kolbars were killed, of which 31 kolbars lost their lives due to shootings by the police and border guards.
In recent years, kolbars of all ages have been seen, including children as young as 14 or 15, women who are heads of households, and the elderly. The only response of the Iranian regime to these individuals is bullets, a regime that itself is one of the largest smugglers.
