Kurdistan Human Rights Network

On Thursday, January 24, the workers of the municipality of Mariwan gathered in front of the municipality building for the fourth consecutive day in protest to their delayed salaries. According to reports received by Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), a group of workers from the municipality of Mariwan continued their protest a 6-months delay in payment of their salaries and overtime bonuses due to the...

Many Kurdish Kolbers (Cross-border Couriers) have been killed and injured by direct shot of Iranian border guards, previously. But in a new trick, the border guards at Nowsoud Border, throwing Stones at Kurdish Kolbers. In the evening of Sunday 28 May, a number of Kolbers, while carrying goods near the border, have been targeted with stones in “Kooh Soni” city functions Nowsoud, an informed sources...

The Iranian authorities have summoned and intimidated 70-year-old Kurdish Kolber worker Khazer Askarzadeh who just recently spoke to BBC Farsi journalists on the harsh working conditions of Kolber work in the border areas. The Intelligence Agency of Piranshahr called him to visit their branch and intelligence officers had met him and threatened him with revoking his work permit licence. “After the BBC TV report...

A gathering of solidarity with Kurdish Kolber workers was cancelled in Mariwan because of the presence of huge Iranian police forces. A few days ago in Mariwan, a group of Kurdish activists planned to gather outside the residence of the governor of the city to protest against the never-ending killings of Kurdish Kolber workers by the security forces. But on the day of the planned protest...

Iranian government troops have opened fire killing and wounding Kurdish Kolber workers and their horses in the Sardasht border area, according to local sources that spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) about the most recent deadly shooting incidents. Iranian military forces opened fire wounding two Kurdish Kolber workers Abdullah Arjang and Ebrahim Abdi in the Alan borer area near the town of Sardasht...

Iranian border guards have shot dead dozens of horses that they confiscated from Kurdish Kolber workers in the town of Baneh in the country’s Kurdish region. The border guards confiscated the horses from the Kurdish Kolber workers in the neighbourhood of Kooteh Rash in the town and killed the horses in the same place on 2 August, locals said. The horses were rounded up and killed...

Kurdistan Human Rights Network - 2015 Annual report on violation of human rights of Kolber workers in Iran Click here for download full report as PDF    An introduction to Kurdish Kolber workers in Iran Kolber is a Kurdish name for workers and tradespersons, who for a small sum of money risk their lives to transport packs of various foreign items on their own back or on the...