A 17-year-old Kurdish Kolber worker, Abdolxalegh Ghafari, drowned while at work trying to cross the Choman-Baneh river in the Kurdish region on the Iraq-Iran border on 25 March.
His body is yet to be found despite a thorough search by his family and local residents of the border area.
“After unsuccessful efforts to find Abdolxalegh’s body, a mourning ceremony was held for him on 29 and 30 March 2016,” a source from Baneh told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Three Kolber workers have lost their lives while at work in the past ten days, two from natural causes and another directly shot dead by the Iranian security forces, according to KHRN documentation.
Kurdish Kolber worker Rostam Rostami, 45, lost his life in the cross border region of Hana Dasht near the city of Nodesheh on 20 March, and It is said that his durable work as well as constant fear of being ambushed by the Iranian military forces resulted in a heart attack that ended his life.
Meanwhile, Iranian security forces shot dead unarmed Kurdish Kolber Jaafar Ebrahimi in the border area of Darman Awa near Sardasht on 21 March.3Kolbers
The Iranian security forces killed at least 44 Kurdish Kolber and Kasibkar workers in 2015 alone, according to KHRN’s 2015 annual report on Kolber workers.
The report also revealed that gunmen of the security forces had injured 21 Kolber workers the same year, and that seven others had died of natural causes mainly due to adverse weather conditions while at work across the border areas.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network