Title: Stop Killing Couriers and Revise Border Closure Plan
Publisher: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
Release date:2012

In a letter sent to Iranian officials, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urged Iranian authorities to revise the Border Closure Plan immediately to prioritize the life and well-being of the residents of Iran’s border regions. The Campaign also urged Iranian authorities to put an end to the use of lethal force against unarmed cross-border couriers.
The letter accompanied a report the Campaign released today, “Dangerous Borders, Callous Murders: Documenting the Killings of Couriers in Iran’s Western Provinces,” which documents extensive human rights abuses in the predominantly Kurdish border provinces of Iran. These include numerous cases of border security forces killing cross-border couriers, often called kulbar, without cause, in what appears to be a growing pattern of excessive use of lethal force.
Both the letter and the report lay out specific recommendations to the separate branches of the Iranian government, officials, and authorities.
In 2006, Iranian authorities began implementing a new border security program intended to prevent terrorists and smuggled goods from crossing its borders. In the months between March 2011 and April 2012, at least 74 low-income Iranian citizens working as cross-border couriers were killed in the border regions, and at least another 76 were injured, largely by security forces. These killings and injuries all occurred within the context of Iran’s Border Closure Plan.[1]