Saman Salehi and Mohammad Karimi, two porters, left the path to save themselves from border guards chasing them around Broyeshkani vollage in the Noh Nour Baneh area. Through the darkness of the night, they lost the path and died from hypothermia. Since the start of the cold season this year, six other porters have lost their lives from hypothermia in the border regions.
According to the Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners, on Monday, January 28th, 2019, Saman Salehi from Saqez and Mohammad Karimi from the village of Shui from Baneh’s area, died from hypothermia at the border elevations of the village of Broyeshkani Baneh.
The complete and accurate statistics of porters are not disclosed by the responsible authorities. Three provinces, Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azarbaijan are on the Iran borders with Iraq and Turkey, which are the main area of porter’s work.
Shooting by border guards, mine blasts, falling off mountains, avalanches, frost, floods, and other natural disasters are the dangers that threatens porters.