They are in the middle of Iran-Iraq border from Kurdistan Region’s side carrying weights of goods on their shoulders if they lucky to cross it then they will earn up to four hundred dollars , they are Kurdish smugglers , mostly Iranian who have chosen death career because they did not get jobs.
Rahman Shehab is a young man in his thirties, lives in Sardasht city in Kurdistan of Iran was waiting for night with his colleagues in a remote village in Erbil province before heading for a trip that will last for a couple of hours on foot to smuggle goods worth five hundred dollars in Erbil in order to pass it to a dealer in the nearest Iranian town for two hundred dollars amid the risk that would reach sometimes to death because of the prosecution of Iranian police or accidents.
Shehab says to al-Jazerra net, " We are not afraid from the Iraqi side , they do not shoot us , but confiscate our goods that we are trying to smuggle and this rarely happen because the distance covered within the borders of Kurdistan Region is too short doesn’t exceed more than one kilometer , but the risk begins when we enter the Iranian border , there is no value to our lives in the eyes of the authorities , they do not hesitate to shoot us under the pretext of protecting the borders by elements of the Kurdish PJAK opposite to the regime . "
Painful Ambushes
Shehab pointed out that before a period, he and his colleagues were in an ambush by the Iranian Pasdaran forces in which one of them was injured seriously and died on its impact.
Nader Karimi - also works in smuggling – says that he does not make a lot from this arduous profession and consider it as just an escape from unemployment, not more.
Karimi confirm that the smuggler will lose everything he make when arrested , and mast pay for an amount equal the work of many years , adding, "We smuggle the forbidden goods in Iran as alcoholic drinks and TV broadcast receivers and others, so we are facing a two penalties ; first is smuggling and the second is contraband trading " .
Human rights organizations always talk about this phenomenon and what smugglers face of measures contrary to human rights without disclosing the number of smugglers arrested or killed from both Iraq and Iran .
The activist, Salar Ghareeb says that the authorities should provide jobs for its citizens and then hold them accountable, pointing out that it is not permissible to fire indiscriminately on unarmed citizens, but confiscate materials in their possession, fine them or imprison them if it was proven that they smuggle narcotic substances according to the laws of that country.
Quoting some smuggler’s employers, smugglers transported Foodstuffs such as tea, sugar, oils and other through the mountains of Kurdistan Region after buying it at low prices compared to prices in Iran , as sometimes goods are being carried on the back of horses and after exceeding the border , cargo would be transferred to the Iranian market in the nearby cities but in un exposed way .