Iran: Border porters victimized

In the evening of May 10, the Iranian regime security forces in Mohammadabad, Iranshahr police station opened fire on a pickup truck carrying diesel fuel. The vehicle got on fire and its two passengers burned to death. The reason the pickup came under fire was for allegedly smuggling fuel.

In Sistan and Baluchistan Province, out of poverty and unemployment, people and in particular the youth earn a living by selling fuel or other commodities. This poor population passes through difficult passage ways in the cold of winter and the heat of summer in fear of being arrested or getting killed.

Similarly, early this week, four Baluchis were killed or injured as border guards from Nagour station on the Iran-Pakistan border opened fire on them. This heartbreaking tragedy is not limited to the southeastern border of the country.

To the west, in Kurdistan, the deprived border porters who carry goods on their backs through mountainous passages, are also targeted by direct fire from Iranian regime’s forces.

On February 27, a Kurdish border porter in Rabat region of Sardasht County was killed by the security forces. Then, on March 9, another porter from the city of Marivan was similarly killed in Asenabad which is situated on the border by fire of Iranian revolutionary guards.

Three days later, on March 12, a number of these porters were injured in Sardasht region by fire from the security forces and one of them died later in the hospital. Regime’s suppressive elements not only target these poor people, but confiscate their goods on the pretext that they are smugglers. On March 29, the revolutionary guards rounded up a number of border porters in Saqez and Baneh and looted their goods.

These poor people transfer goods such as fuel, cigarettes, electric equipment, clothing, tires… with great difficulty and at a high risk to their lives to earn a living for their families.

This pressure on the deprived people comes while over $20 billion worth of smuggled goods enter the country annually which amounts to one third of country’s official trade.

Items such as cigarettes, mobile phones, clothing and even saffron are smuggled into the country by gangs affiliated with the regime. These smugglers not only are not targeted by the security forces, but are not even arrested. In fact, regime’s elements and organs, such as the revolutionary guards, have their own illegal ports that are used for smuggling. It is reported that around 80 such illegal ports are operating in Busher, Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchistan provinces outside the official customs.

This smuggling is totally to the detriment of domestic producers. Moreover, if these commodities entered the country legally, it would bring in $3 billion in revenues annually for the government in taxes. Last January, Moussa al-Reza, a member of parliament’s Planning, Budget and Audits Committee, stated: “The value of goods entering free zones is over $8 billion and these areas have turned into official centers for smuggling.”

Regime’s Interior Minister said, “We have people that 27000 vehicles, such as Porsche, are brought to the country in their names so that no taxes are paid”.

While institutions affiliated with the regime are busy smuggling goods on mindboggling levels and are supported by regime’s leaders, the deprived people are shot for smuggling a little fuel, clothing or cigarettes. Surely, the regime will pay the price for its policies sooner or later.