Wave of Iranian Workers and Street Vendors in Iraq

A member of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce considers the presence of Iranian unskilled workers and vendors in Iraq a rapidly growing and escalating phenomenon that requires organization, support, and training. He says the market for specialized construction work is dominated by Iranian master craftsmen.

Ali Shariati, a member of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, told ILNA news agency that the Iranian workforce in Iraq and the Kurdistan region has increased significantly, and Iran’s embassy and consulates must take measures to support this workforce.

He notes that in recent months, Iraqi employers have shown less willingness to hire Iranian unskilled workers, attributing the reason to a lack of necessary training: “An unskilled worker must have certain minimum qualifications, namely proficiency in language, social etiquette and culture, appropriate conduct with tourists and especially women, which unfortunately only a small number of people who have gone from Iran to the region as unskilled workers possess. Moreover, with the influx of job seekers, Iraqi employers prioritize people with university education because most of these individuals have the above characteristics.”

Shariati says most people who go to the Kurdistan region as vendors are from West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Lorestan, and Khuzestan provinces: “Usually these people bring their own vehicles, which also serve as their sleeping and residence place, through customs transit, and by traveling to various parts of Iraq, especially the tourist areas of the Kurdistan region, they sell various goods such as handicrafts, lamps, wall pictures, or mobile phone accessories.”

Customs transit refers to obtaining a one-year customs permit to take a vehicle out of the country.

The Tehran Chamber of Commerce member recalled that the market for specialized construction work in Iraq is dominated by Iranian master craftsmen, and an Iranian plasterer or stonemason receives wages far higher than inside the country: “They earn at least 25,000 dinars or 250,000 tomans per day, which would not be paid to a master craftsman even if construction work were booming in Iran.”

Ali Shariati, meanwhile, criticized the lack of proper organization of Iranian workers and said: “Bangladeshi, Filipino, and Ethiopian workers have managed to monopolize service jobs in Iraq. In addition to being content with minimum wages, they are organized by companies and government organizations of their own countries. For example, a hotel manager prefers to sign a contract with a Filipino or Bangladeshi company regarding hiring workers rather than searching the streets for individuals without a specific guarantor. Moreover, company workers are fully trained.”

ILNA news agency quoted Ali Shariati as saying: “Most Iranians present in Iraq remain in the country even after their visa and residence period expires, and if the employer fails to pay their wages for any reason, since they are in the country illegally, they actually have no opportunity to file a lawsuit, or their passports are taken as collateral from the start and they are no longer allowed to extend their residence.”

In explaining the situation of Iranian workers, he said: “Iranian employers, by exploiting religious sentiments, pay workers lower amounts, and in return arrange daily Karbala or Najaf pilgrimage services for them, or recently Iraqi and Iranian employers no longer give workers dollars and agree with them in rials.”

The wave of work trips occurred after the currency’s value declined and construction stagnated in Iran, but there are no statistics on the number of Iranian workers in Iraq. One reason is that they all enter the country on tourist visas.

France’s news agency previously reported that most Iranian workers enter Iraq’s Kurdistan with one-month tourist visas and, after a one-week break, return to Iraq again. Most construction workers stay in cheap guesthouses in Arbil at three dollars per night. In the French news agency’s report, it was mentioned that a 28-year-old young man who graduated in mathematics from Sanandaj University goes to Arbil to sell handmade plaster sculptures.

Source: DW