Kurdistan Human Rights Organisation announced that 63 Kurdish kolbars were killed by Iranian regime forces during 2024.
Kolbars are Kurdish civilians who have to do border trade by risking their lives in the difficult geographical conditions of Eastern Kurdistan. Frequently targeted by the Iranian regime, kolbars continue to struggle for their lives due to harsh living conditions and attacks by regime forces.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Organisation published a report on the attacks on kolbars in Eastern Kurdistan during 2024. Accordingly, 63 Kurdish kolbars were killed and 233 others were wounded by the Iranian regime forces last year. Kolbars were mostly killed or wounded as a result of direct fire from Iranian security forces.
Highlighting the rights violations in the region, the organisation stressed that the Iranian regime systematically prevents civil society organisations and activists in Eastern Kurdistan from following and investigating such violations. For this reason, it added, the announced data may not fully reflect the reality.
Background
Eastern Kurdistan has descended deeper into poverty through the years due to deliberate policies by the Iranian regime and stands out as one of the poorest regions in Iran. Compared to other regions, the area has seen significantly less investment and development has been deliberately curbed. Agriculture and industry weren’t allowed to develop, and as a result, unemployment rose to the highest in Iran.
Faced with policies of discrimination, oppression and impoverishment, carrying smuggled goods is not a choice but a must for survival.
Kolbar comes from the Kurdish words, “kol” (back) and “bar” (load). Kolbars make their living carrying loads along the perilous borderline. Their loads include cigarettes, mobile phones, clothes, housewares, tea and seldomly alcohol. They walk through dangerous terrain to continue this trade between Southern and Eastern Kurdistan. The goods they bring are sold at high prices in Tehran, but the kolbars who risk their lives for them are paid very modestly.
The intermediaries who take the deliveries and find buyers in cities are called kasibkars. Kolbars and kasibkars range from 13 to 70 years old. Some only finished elementary school, while others are university graduates. They carry loads, because they can’t find any other employment.[1]

Iranian regime forces continue their deadly attacks against Kurdish load carries in the border areas.
Rahman Rasoulzadeh, a 45-year-old #kolbar# , was shot dead by Iranian border forces in the Hangeh-ye Zhal border area of Baneh, Kurdistan Province, in the early hours of 17 August.
According to information obtained by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), border forces opened fire at close range and without warning on a group of kolbars, fatally striking Rasoulzadeh in the chest.
Rasoulzadeh, who was from Baneh, was the father of one child.

Background
Eastern Kurdistan has descended deeper into poverty through the years due to deliberate policies by the Iranian regime and stands out as one of the poorest regions in Iran. Compared to other regions, the area has seen significantly less investment and development has been deliberately curbed. Agriculture and industry weren’t allowed to develop, and as a result, unemployment rose to the highest in Iran.
Faced with policies of discrimination, oppression and impoverishment, carrying smuggled goods is not a choice but a must for survival.
Kolbar comes from the Kurdish words, “kol” (back) and “bar” (load). Kolbars make their living carrying loads along the perilous borderline. Their loads include cigarettes, mobile phones, clothes, housewares, tea and seldomly alcohol. They walk through dangerous terrain to continue this trade between Southern and Eastern Kurdistan. The goods they bring are sold at high prices in Tehran, but the kolbars who risk their lives for them are paid very modestly.
The intermediaries who take the deliveries and find buyers in cities are called kasibkars. Kolbars and kasibkars range from 13 to 70 years old. Some only finished elementary school, while others are university graduates. They carry loads, because they can’t find any other employment. [1]

At least 48 #kolbars# were killed and 239 were injured as a result of the attacks carried out by the Iranian regime forces in the first 11 months of 2023.
According to the Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) media, at least 48 kolbars were killed and 239 (but some human rights associations put the number at 292) were injured in the attacks carried out by the Iranian regime forces from January to November 2023 in the border regions of Iran and Rojhilat.

The kolbars
Kolber or “kolbar” is derived from the Kurdish words “kol” and “bar”. Kol means “back”, bar means “load”. Kolbars make their living by carrying goods on their backs across dangerous borders. The goods they carry include cigarettes, mobile phones, blankets, household items, tea and rarely alcoholic beverages. They have to pass through dangerous roads between South Kurdistan and East Kurdistan. The goods brought are sold at relatively high prices in commercial centres such as Tehran. However, kolbars who carry out the transportation of goods at the expense of their lives receive a very small amount of wages.

Kasibkar refers to those people who receive the goods kolbars carry to South Kurdistan and find buyers in towns.[1]

In Ûrmiye wurden drei kurdische #Kolbar# , darunter auch ein KRI-Bürger, zum Tode verurteilt, weil sie für Israel spioniert haben sollen. Außerdem hätten sie Waffen transportiert, die bei einem Anschlag auf einen Atomwissenschaftler verwendet worden seien.
Ein iranisches Revolutionsgericht in Ûrmiye (Urmia) hat drei Kurden wegen Spionage für Israel zum Tode verurteilt. Die Angeklagten seien laut der Regime-Justiz beschuldigt, dem israelischen Geheimdienst Mossad geholfen zu haben, berichtete die iranische Nachrichtenagentur Fars am Mittwoch. Demnach sollen sie geholfen haben, Ausrüstung zu transportieren, die bei der Ermordung des iranischen Atomwissenschaftlers Mohsen Fakhrizadeh 2020 verwendet wurde. Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) berichtete, dass es sich bei den drei Männern um Kolbar handelt.

Fakhrizadeh galt als „Vater des iranischen Atomprogramms“ und war zuletzt als Leiter der Abteilung Forschung und technologische Entwicklung im iranischen Verteidigungsministerium verantwortlich für das Raketenprogramm des Landes. Die Hintergründe seiner Ermordung sind umstritten, nach Darstellungen verschiedener Nachrichtendienste ist der Mossad mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit für das Attentat verantwortlich. Teheran gibt vor, dass die bei dem Anschlag auf Fakhrizadeh verwendeten Waffen in Einzelteilen in den Iran geschmuggelt worden seien – sowohl von israelischen als auch iranischen Staatsbürgern. Einige dieser Einzelteile, so unterstellt es die iranische Justiz, sei von den Angeklagten transportiert worden.

Bei den Angeklagten handelt es sich um Edris Ali und Azad Shojae aus Serdeşt sowie Rasoul Ahmad Mohammad, Bürger der Kurdistan-Region des Irak (KRI). Nach Informationen des KHRN wurden sie im Juli 2023 in Serdeşt von Agenten des iranischen Geheimdienstministeriums festgenommen und zunächst über mehrere Monate in einem Internierungslager in Ûrmiye festgehalten, bevor sie in das städtische Zentralgefängnis verlegt wurden. Während dem Prozess sollen sie jegliche Beteiligung an den vorgeworfenen Handlungen abgestritten und die iranischen Behörden beschuldigt haben, unter Folter zu „Ge­ständnissen“ gezwungen worden zu seien. Sie hätten lediglich verschiedene Lasten über die Grenzen Irans und Iraks geschmuggelt, darunter auch Alkohol.

Das Trinken von Alkohol ist in Iran seit der Islamischen Revolution 1979 per Gesetz untersagt und der gefährliche Grenzhandel, durch den Menschen im vernachlässigten Kurdistan versuchen, ihre Existenz zu sichern, ebenfalls tabu. 2018 wurden in Iran sogar Tötungsaufrufe für Kolbar per Fatwa ausgesprochen. Laut dem KHRN habe der konkrete Anklagepunkt gegen Edris Ali, Azad Shojae und Rasoul Ahmad Mohammad auf „Einfuhr von als alkoholische Getränke getarnter Mordausrüstung“ gelautet. Der in Frankreich ansässigen Menschenrechtsgruppe zufolge wurde bereits Berufung gegen das Urteil eingelegt.[1]

The political and security situation in Iran has in many respects worsened in the past several years. This is especially the case with respect to the plight of the non-Persian nations.
Iran has during the past four decades systematically targeted the non-Persian communities and subjected them to all sorts of oppression and violence, ranging from systematic linguistic, cultural, economic, social and political oppression to forced demographic change as well as forced assimilation.
The violence inflicted on the Kurdish people by the Iranian state occurs in various forms and contexts. In this report, it is the violence in the context of the economic underdevelopment of Iranian Kurdistan in comparison to the central parts of Iran that is highlighted. This kind of violence manifests itself in the indiscriminate killings of the Kurdish civilians who work as #Kolbars# (porters), i.e. individuals who carry goods on their backs across the border regions between Iraqi, Turkish and Iranian Kurdistan.
The economic underdevelopment of Iranian Kurdistan, combined with deliberate and sustained state policy, and the lack of employment opportunities have forced the people of Kurdistan into what in Kurdish is known as “Kolbari” (porterage) as a means of survival.
The Kolbars or porters, young and old, including those that are highly educated, carry goods as heavy as 220 kg on their backs across mountainous regions. In recent years, the number of university students and university graduates have also been on the rise. These university students reportedly receive about 150 to 200 thousand Toman (equivalent of 30€ to 40€) each time for porterage.
Kolbars, whom are forced to take up this line of work as a means of survival, face mortal danger, including but not limited to the harsh weather conditions such as avalanches as well as increasing and indiscriminate shooting from the so-called Iranian security forces, as well as ambush and even imprisonment. Kolbars are easy targets for the paramilitary and so-called border security forces, who in fact constitute a threat to the security of Kurdish civilians.
Figures from various human rights organizations show that since the year 2014, the number of Kolbars killed and injured by Iranian paramilitary forces and the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has increased annually. In 2018 alone, at least 231 Kolbars were either killed or seriously wounded due to indiscriminate shootings from the regime’s paramilitary and so-called border security forces.
Despite increasing civil protests against the indiscriminate killings of Kolbars by the people of Kurdistan, there is still no real changes in the Iranian government’s policy. In a recent statement, Sardar Qasem Rezaie, an Iranian military official, not only defended the shootings and killings of Kolbars by the regime’s forces, but he also justified the killing of Kurdish porters. His blatant support for these human rights violations and outright support for the so-called border forces’ indiscriminate shootings speaks to the fact that even regime officials have little to no respect to their own domestic laws when it comes to the Kurdish Kolbars. According to Iran’s domestic laws, the use of firearms should only be used as a last resort.
The international community has over the years remained silent in the face of these human rights violations carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Kurdish people. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) calls on the international community and human rights organizations to take a firm stance against the Iranian regime’s repeated and ongoing violations of the human rights of the Kurdish people.[1]

MARIWAN, Iran - As he pours his customers another cup of tea, Khalid Haqmuradi takes a look at his late son’s picture, and ponders upon the heavy debt placed on his shoulders following the kolbar’s passing. A debt that he cannot repay even if he were to sell his most valuable property, his house.
Kolbar Kaiwan Haqmuradi, 30, was shot dead by Iranian border guards on June 30, 2021 in the mountainous areas of #Hawraman# in Iran’s western Kurdish region (Rojhelat).
A year after the incident, Kaiwan’s death continues to take a heavy toll on his family, this time in the form of a 500 million toman (approximately 17,000) debt, which was enforced upon them by the owner of the cargo following the confiscation of the kolbar’s package.
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 border guards in the Kurdish areas in western Iran, and are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, as well as being victims of natural disasters, freezing, and falling from heights.
Khalid believes that his son’s soul cannot rest unless his debts are repaid, based on his religious beliefs.
“I have nothing but my house, which I have put up for sale but it would not even cover for half of the debts… I do not want Kaiwan to be in debt to anyone. For my son’s soul to rest, I will do everything I can to save him from the torment of the grave,” Khalid told Rudaw English in May.
“I knew he was in debt, but I did not know it was to this extent,” he added.
Khalid, who has been working in his humble teahouse in Mariwan’s Kani Dinar for the last thirty years, says the teahouse can barely provide for his own family, which is now also burdened with raising Kaiwan’s child, who was abandoned by the mother following his death.
Mohammed Shkari, Khalid’s neighbor and whose 18-year-old son is also a kolbar, blames the lack of job opportunities in the area for the youth working the hazardous occupation.
“Uncle Khalid’s sad story is only a drop in the suffering the people of this area go through because of unemployment. I believe if working as a kolbar was not an option, the people would have no other asylum and there would be more problems. That’s why the officials need to think of a way to help the people out of this hardship,” Shkari told Rudaw English.
In their monthly report on human rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish areas, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said that Iranian border guards in June killed at least one tradesman from the Kurdistan Region and injured another, while also wounding at least 13 kolbars.[1]

#Kolbar# überqueren das ganze Jahr über das bergige Grenzgebiet zwischen Rojhilat, Başûr und Bakur, um ihren Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. 59 von ihnen kamen 2024 bei dieser gefährlichen Arbeit zu Tode, die meisten wurden von iranischen Grenzern erschossen
Das Töten von Kolbar im kurdischen Grenzgebiet des Dreiländerecks von Iran, Irak und der Türkei ging auch 2024 weiter. Mindestens 59 Lastenträger kamen laut einem Bericht der Initiative „Kolbarnews” im vergangenen Jahr in der bergigen Grenzregion zwischen den aufgeteilten Siedlungsgebieten der Kurdinnen und Kurden ums Leben, 285 weitere wurden verletzt. Die meisten von ihnen wurden Opfer von extralegalen Hinrichtungen, die iranische Grenztruppen verübten. Weitere Todesfälle ereigneten sich durch Stürze aus der Höhe sowie Minenexplosionen, Erfrierungen und Ertrinken. Mehr als 20 der getöteten und verletzten Kolbar waren minderjährig.

Kolbar schmuggeln Waren auf ihrem Rücken

Kolbar, je nach Mundart auch Kolber, leben davon, Haushaltswaren wie Matratzen, und Fernseher, aber auch Zigaretten und manchmal auch Alkohol auf ihrem Rücken über die gefährlichen Grenzen Irans und Iraks zu bringen und einen Handel zwischen den verschiedenen kurdischen Regionen möglich zu machen. Die Ware ist im Irak billiger als in Iran, das zudem einem von den USA initiierten Wirtschaftsboykott unterliegt. Bis zu 50 Kilogramm schleppen Kolbar über die Passrouten – oft nur in Alltagskleidung, und erhalten nur einen minimalen Tagelohn. Den weiteren Verkauf übernehmen die „Kesibkar“, die von Stadt zu Stadt reisen, um für die Waren, die von den Lastenträgern über die Grenze gebracht wurden, Abnehmende zu finden.
Im Dokumentarfilm „Nur Kurden werden sofort erschossen“ erzählt der kurdische Journalist und Filmemacher Jamshid Bahrami die Geschichte der Kolber.


Mindestens 100.000 Kolbar in Rojhilat

Der Marsch über die Berge birgt viele Gefahren. Neben iranischen Grenzschützern, die auf sie lauern und ohne Warnung schießen, passieren die Kolbar auch steile und unwegsame Wege, nicht selten sind ihre Routen vermint. Mindestens hunderttausend Kurd:innen müssen diesen Beruf laut Kolbarnews dennoch ausüben, um wenigstens irgendein Einkommen für sich und ihre Familien erzielen. Das iranische Regime hat Ostkurdistan durch eine gezielte Wirtschaftspolitik verarmen lassen – Rojhilat stellt mittlerweile eine der ärmsten Regionen des Landes dar. Im Vergleich wurde dort am wenigsten investiert und die Entwicklung der kurdischen Gebiete absichtsvoll gebremst. Die Entwicklung von Landwirtschaft und Industrie wurde verhindert, infolgedessen sind die Arbeitslosenzahlen am höchsten im Verhältnis zu den anderen Regionen in Iran.

Zahlen zeigen nicht das gesamte Ausmaß des Kolbarsterbens

Die Initiative Kolbarnews, die sich seit 2013 mit dem Drama der Kolbar beschäftigt, befürchtet allerdings, dass die Dunkelziffer aller im vergangenen Jahr umgekommenen Kolbar höher ist als bekannt. In der Vergangenheit musste die NGO häufig ihre Berichte korrigieren, da Leichen von vermissten Lastenträgern in den Frühlingsmonaten von der Schneeschmelze freigelegt wurden. Oftmals fürchten sich Kolbar zudem vor weiterer Repression des Regimes und zögern daher, mit Menschenrechtsverletzungen an die Öffentlichkeit zu gehen. Die Furcht ist nicht unbegründet.

Anstieg extralegaler Tötungen durch Fatwa gegen Kolbar

2018 hatte der für Sicherheitsangelegenheiten zuständige damalige Vize-Innenminister Hossein Zolfaghari eine verfassungsfeindliche Fatwa ausgesprochen und Kolbar als „Schmuggler“ bezeichnet, „die getötet werden müssen“. Auch geht die Justiz des Regimes verschärft gegen Kolbar vor. Erst im November 2024 wurden in Ûrmiye (Urmia) drei kurdische Kolbar, darunter auch ein Bürger der Kurdistan-Region des Irak (KRI), zum Tode verurteilt, weil sie für Israel spioniert haben sollen. Außerdem hätten sie Waffen transportiert, die bei einem Anschlag auf einen Atomwissenschaftler verwendet worden seien. Der einzige Beweis für die Anschuldigung: Unter Folter erzwungene Geständnisse, die beim Prozess von den Angeklagten widerrufen wurden.[1]

Iranian regime forces continue their deadly attacks against Kurdish #kolbars# (load carriers) with impunity.
Iranian border guards have opened fire on a vehicle carrying kolbars near the mountainous Zhalaneh region in Sarvabad, Kurdistan Province, killing kolbar Kourosh Moradi and seriously injuring Rizgar Vatan-Doust.
A source in Sarvabad confirmed the news to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “On the morning of 27 May 2025, a vehicle carrying several kolbars in the Zhalaneh border region of Sarvabad was fired upon by forces from the local border post. As a result, Kourosh Moradi, a 20-year-old kolbar from the village of Sepidar in Sarvabad, was killed instantly, and Rizgar Vatan-Doust was seriously wounded.”
The source added that the border forces opened fire at close range on the vehicle, which was not carrying any goods, en route to the border.
Moradi’s body has been transferred to a forensic medical facility in Marivan for examination.
Background
Eastern Kurdistan has descended deeper into poverty through the years due to deliberate policies by the Iranian regime and stands out as one of the poorest regions in Iran. Compared to other regions, the area has seen significantly less investment and development has been deliberately curbed. Agriculture and industry weren’t allowed to develop, and as a result, unemployment rose to the highest in Iran.
Faced with policies of discrimination, oppression and impoverishment, carrying smuggled goods is not a choice but a must for survival.
Kolbar comes from the Kurdish words, “kol” (back) and “bar” (load). Kolbars make their living carrying loads along the perilous borderline. Their loads include cigarettes, mobile phones, clothes, housewares, tea and seldomly alcohol. They walk through dangerous terrain to continue this trade between Southern and Eastern Kurdistan. The goods they bring are sold at high prices in Tehran, but the kolbars who risk their lives for them are paid very modestly.
The intermediaries who take the deliveries and find buyers in cities are called kasibkars. Kolbars and kasibkars range from 13 to 70 years old. Some only finished elementary school, while others are university graduates. They carry loads, because they can’t find any other employment.
According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, 51 Kurdish kolbars were killed and 246 others were injured by the Iranian regime in the border regions of Urmia, Bane, Serdasht, Pawe and Kermanshan throughout 2024.[1]