Iran MPs to Investigate Protester Torture Claims

Iran's parliament will investigate claims by a labor protest leader that he was tortured in prison following strikes at a sugar factory, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Alireza Rahimi, a member of parliament's presiding board, said his request for an investigation had been accepted by speaker Ali Larijani, according to ISNA.

It followed claims by Esmail Bakhshi, written on his Instagram account and reported by the reformist Etemad newspaper, that he was tortured during 25 days in detention in southwestern Khuzestan province late last year.

Bakhshi was one of the organizers of weeks-long protests at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in Shush over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by new private owners.

Ali Motahari, an outspoken member of parliament, wrote a column in Etemad on Sunday titled "Source of shame", demanding answers from the intelligence ministry. 

The governor of Khuzestan, Gholamreza Shariati, denied Bakhshi's claims. 

"I checked with the relevant bodies and the claim of torture was strongly denied," he told the Jamaran news site. 

Rahimi said Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi will attend the commission hearings in parliament, according to ISNA.

The strike at Haft Tapeh, which has around 4,000 workers, largely ended in December after the workers received their wages.

Iran has been hit by strikes over working conditions in several key sectors this year, including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside Tehran.

In November the head of Iran's judiciary warned restive workers against creating "disorder.”

"Workers should not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy," Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said, quoted by the judiciary's news agency Mizan Online.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran MP Denounces Arrest of Striking Workers

An Iranian member of parliament denounced the arrest of several striking workers following weeks of protests at a steel plant in southwestern Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Wednesday.

"A number of workers of the National Steel Group who had work-related complaints were arrested two days ago," Alireza Mahjoub, head of parliament's labor faction, said in a speech to lawmakers.

"This is a violation of the constitution," he added, calling on parliament to intervene to free the arrested workers. 

Staff at the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz in Khuzestan province have been on strike since November 9 over unpaid wages and benefits, said labor-focused news agency ILNA.

The Ahvaz protests started shortly after a strike by workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in nearby Shush over wage arrears and alleged criminal activity by new private owners.

The strike at Haft Tapeh, which has around 4,000 workers, ended after the workers received their wages.

Iran has been hit by strikes over working conditions in several key sectors this year, including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside Tehran.

In November the head of Iran's judiciary warned restive workers against creating "disorder".

"Workers should not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy," Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said, quoted by the judiciary's news agency Mizan Online.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Judicial Chief Warns Over Worker Unrest

The head of Iran's judicial authority on Monday warned restive workers against creating "disorder", while calling on the government to address their problems.

Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani spoke amid efforts to resolve a weeks-long strike at a major sugar factory in western Iran and popular discontent over rising prices.

"Workers should not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy and creation of disorder in the country," Larijani said, quoted by the judiciary's news agency Mizan Online.

Acknowledging that many workers are struggling to make ends meet, he said the government must address workers' problems "immediately", according to Mizan.

"The demands of dear workers must be met in a rational atmosphere... with the involvement of the government and the judiciary branch," he said.

But "demands will never be met by turmoil, crisis and actions contrary to public order", he said.

A strike by workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in Shush, a city in Khuzestan province, on Monday entered its 22nd day, according to the reformist ILNA news agency.

Workers are protesting against salary arrears and alleged criminal activity by managers.

The business has around 4,000 workers and was privatized in 2016.

The workers said on Monday that they have been paid their salaries for the period August 23 to 22 September, ILNA said.

ILNA said three out of four workers that it had reported arrested on November 18 have subsequently been freed.

Iran has been hit by strikes over working conditions in several key sectors this year, including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside Tehran.

Inflation stands at 36.9 percent, according to the latest monthly data published by the central bank.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Four Arrested in Iran Sugar Protests

Four people were arrested in southwestern Iran on Sunday as locals joined striking sugar workers in mounting protests over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by managers, the official IRNA news agency said.

Protests by workers from the Haft Tapeh sugar company in Shush, a city in Khuzestan province, have been building in recent days. 

IRNA said locals had joined the demonstrations on Sunday, without giving numbers. 

Those arrested included two local workers' representatives and a female reporter, it added. 

Iran has seen multiple strikes and protests in recent months over working conditions and unpaid wages in a range of sectors, including steel, education, mining and transport.

Haft Tapeh, which employs about 4,000 people, has been hit with multiple protests over mismanagement and alleged criminality since the firm was privatised in 2016.

The head of Iran's privatization organization Mir Ali Ashraf Pouri-Hosseini said Sunday that several board members had been arrested "over forex issues and other ambiguities,” according to the Hamshahri newspaper.

Haft Tapeh's managing director is "on the run", lawmaker Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini said following a meeting with the judiciary, according to IRNA.

There were reports the government was preparing to pay two months of delayed wages, but workers remained sceptical.

"For years we have repeatedly heard officials saying that our demands have been met but nothing has happened. We will continue our gatherings until it happens," an unnamed protester told the semi-official ILNA news agency. 

Photo Credit: Citizen Journalist

Afghans Return Home in Record Numbers as Iran Currency Plunges

Migrant workers squeezed into battered taxis pull into the Four Seasons of Freedom hotel in western Afghanistan, part of a wave of Afghans forced to leave Iran after a currency implosion wiped out their earnings.

A record 442,344 Afghans have voluntarily returned or been deported from Iran this year as looming US sanctions—which began to be reimposed this week—fueled a run on the rial and spurred inflation.

Iran's currency has lost around half of its value against the dollar since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May, triggering a reimposition of tough penalties on the Islamic republic.

That has devastated not only the savings of Iranian households, but also the remittances of undocumented Afghans.  

Desperate and jobless Afghans have crossed the porous border with Iran for years in search of work to support their struggling families back home.

Many of those families are farmers now suffering through Afghanistan's worst drought in living memory, compounding the misery caused by 17 years of conflict and underscoring their reliance on the remittances.

Abdul Mussawir, who went to Iran three years ago, used to earn the equivalent of 18,000 afghanis per month (about USD 260) working in an auto factory in the central city of Isfahan. 

Mussawir, 22, sent money to his parents and nine younger siblings in Parwan province, supplementing the meagre income of his taxi driver father. 

But as the run on the rial gathered pace, his monthly earnings shriveled to the equivalent of 6,000 afghanis. 

"I was sending almost all the money I was earning to support my family... (but) it wasn't enough," said Mussawir, wearing a shirt emblazoned with "Keep Karma + Carry On".

After taking a taxi from the border to the Four Seasons of Freedom hotel in Herat city, a distance of roughly 140 kilometres (90 miles), Mussawir hoped to find better paid work in his conflict-torn country. 

"It doesn't make sense to come back here but I have to," he said, a look of resignation etched on his face.

No Job, No Future

The 442,344 Afghans who returned from Iran in the first seven months of 2018 was more than double the number for the same period of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

"The number of Afghan returnees from Iran in 2018 has been unprecedented," IOM spokeswoman Eva Schwoerer told AFP in Herat.

The figure included 191,056 "spontaneous", or voluntary, returns. The remaining 251,288 were deported as Iran toughens its border controls. 

Among those kicked out was 17-year-old Aleem Mohmini, who spent three months working on a tomato farm near the southern city of Shiraz before Iranian police caught him.

As he sat with other minors in the IOM's transit centre for returnees in Herat, Mohmini pondered his future in a country where unemployment is rampant.   

"I don't know what I should do. There's no one in my family to earn money," said Mohmini, who was the breadwinner for his household in the northern province of Baghlan.

The IOM expects the flood of returnees to Afghanistan to continue as US sanctions targeting Iran's access to US banknotes, key industries and oil sales exacerbate the country's economic woes.

The influx is having "direct and immediate effects" on the Afghan economy, the IOM said in its latest report.

It is pushing down wages for casual laborers in cities and fueling the displacement of drought-stricken Afghan farmers, many of whom have long relied on income from relatives working in Iran.

More than 70,000 people have been forced to move to cities due to the lack of water and food, according to the United Nations, with many of them living in makeshift tents and competing with returnees for limited jobs. 

Iran's currency freefall is also hurting Afghan businesses in Herat that rely heavily on returning Afghans for sales of mobile phones, backpacks and shoes. 

"Business was much better in the past... (people) were rich, they could buy everything," said Zia Fahmi, whose sales have plunged more than 80 percent in recent months.

As newly arrived returnees loitered outside his store, Fahmi said he may be forced to close the shop and join the migrant trail to look for work in "other countries".  

Abdullah Wasi Zahariyan, who spent a year working on a cucumber farm in Isfahan, also told AFP he plans to go to "another country"—most likely Turkey, and then Germany—if he cannot find a job in Afghanistan.

Zahariyan, 22, decided to return home after his earnings plunged 60 percent due to the devaluation of the rial.

"If there is no job in Afghanistan, there is no future," he told AFP. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons