A senior Iranian diplomatic official in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, outlining worrying details, reported the abuse of Iranian nationals by separatist groups leveraging the policy of granting free residency to members of these groups in the Kurdistan Region. He warned that these groups coerce Iranian citizens, especially youth and adolescents, into forced membership in counter-revolutionary groups through deception, threats, and filming them, thereby blocking their path to return to their homeland.
Following the publication of the report by the Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch (IKHRW) titled “Detention, Forced Transfer, and the Legal Responsibility of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq“ regarding the arbitrary detention of Iranian citizens and their forced transfer to the PAK armed group in cooperation with Kurdistan Region authorities and its reflections in media circles, and also to fulfill its inherent duty as an active human rights NGO, we approached a senior Iranian diplomat to seek the realization of the rights of Iranian Kurdish citizens by understanding more dimensions of this issue.
In an interview with the reporter of the Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch, aiming to follow up on matters related to Iranians present in the Kurdistan Region, the senior Iranian diplomat cited reports that separatist groups recruit forces from among Iranian job seekers using various ploys, with overt and covert support for this process within the Kurdistan Region. He said: “In the Kurdistan Region, a very high fee is set as a residency right for a limited one-year period for individuals entering from outside this region and from other countries, and Iranians are no exception to this matter; in fact, an amount of around one million two hundred thousand dinars is received to obtain a one-year residency in the Kurdistan Region.”
He added: “Regrettably, this privilege has been given by some official institutions in the Kurdistan Region to Iranian separatist groups so that anyone these groups introduce to the relevant authorities receives free residency rights. This privilege has attracted a large number of Iranians seeking residency in the Kurdistan Region.”
According to him, the first step is that the mentioned groups attract Iranian nationals, including workers, technical technicians, service sector activists, etc., who are looking for work in the Region, regardless of whether they are men or women, with the promise of free residency, and introduce them to the residency institutions of the Kurdistan Region to obtain free residency for them. When the right to free residency is granted to them, these individuals typically consider themselves indebted and obligated to these groups.
This senior Iranian diplomat continued: “Under conditions where the individual has not yet found their footing, the mentioned group accepts responsibility for them, obtains a free one-year residency for them, and in return gives them a supporter card, presenting them as a member or supporter of the group. Then, through deception, they make the individuals wear military uniforms, take photos of them, and publish the photos on their membership cards. Once the photo in military uniform is distributed, they tell the individual ‘you are now a member of the group,’ and by doing this, they practically capture them without any possibility of returning to the country.”
He stated: “They gradually work on the individual, providing them with various types of brainwashing mechanisms, false propaganda, and ideological training; they then put weapons in their hands, take videos and photos of them again, and distribute them in cyberspace to introduce their subject as an official member of the group. Afterward, they instill in them that under these conditions, if you return to Iran, you will definitely be executed. In addition, they record immoral videos of these individuals, both women and men, and threaten that if you intend to return to Iran or escape from the group’s camp, they will send these videos to their families and relatives or even publish them in cyberspace.”
He emphasized: “If anyone does not cooperate with them, they create various legal scenarios against them and complain against them under different pretexts to ultimately send the individual to the security apparatus of the Region and then to the court. After a few days, they implement another face of their scenario; at this stage, the group’s representative appears as a guarantor for the detained individual who is under pressure from the security or judicial institutions of the Region and takes custody of the individual from the judicial or security institution. This coordination between some security institutions of the Kurdistan Region and counter-revolutionary groups has been documented many times and has also been heavily protested by us.”
With further explanation from this Iranian diplomat, it became clear that other actions are also implemented against the recruited subjects; they force individuals to bring their friends, acquaintances, and relatives, especially young individuals, to the Region under the pretext of job hunting. Then, with the promise of obtaining a residency card, good residency conditions, and even supporting them to emigrate to Europe, they recruit even 13, 14, and 15-year-old adolescents. Upon their entry into the Kurdistan Region, their connection with their families is severed, and they are placed at the disposal of the group, and they are not allowed any movement outside the Region until the age of 18; and of course, it is obvious that the same devilish behavior previously mentioned is carried out against them to force the individual to become stuck and dependent on them.
He stated: “These groups also manage job-hunting channels in cyberspace in the Kurdistan Region, especially in Erbil, which they abuse to facilitate recruitment from among job seekers in the Region.”
At the end, this senior Iranian diplomat noted that these matters must be informed to Iranian nationals, especially Kurdish youth seeking work in Iran, so that they do not fall for the seemingly beautiful propaganda and false promises of these antagonistic and deceptive groups, which do not adhere to any moral value or standard. Most of these cases that I brought to your attention have been reported by penitents and returnees from these groups and have been documented by us.
The Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch, while condemning these inhumane actions, is pursuing the fate of the mentioned Iranian nationals through official authorities.
