Insurance for Border Couriers

An insurance scheme has been launched for border couriers, a member of parliament, Rasoul Khezri has announced. Up to 18,000 border couriers are expected to be covered by an insurance program billed as “Kulbaran Insurance”, which includes healthcare insurance, disability income insurance, retirement and pension plans as well as blood money payments, ICANA quoted the MP as saying. Border couriers, referred to as kulbaran in Kurdish, are people of mainly Kurdish-dominated provinces in West Azarbaijan, Kermanshah and Kurdestan who carry contraband on their backs through mountainous areas to earn their livelihood. They usually carry the goods from areas bordering Iraq and Turkey to the nearest villages in Iran and from there the goods are transported to cities by road.