Civil servants across Kurdistan protest austerity measures, salary delays

Civil servants across the Kurdistan Region took to the streets on Sunday in protest, calling for an end to austerity measures, salary delays, and corruption.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Civil servants across the Kurdistan Region took to the streets on Sunday in protest, calling for an end to austerity measures, salary delays, and corruption.

The large demonstrations, which took place in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok, had hundreds of public school teachers and employees of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Health Ministry out of the office, protesting.

Slogans and signs were raised, asking the KRG to end austerity measures which have been in effect since the start of 2016 in attempts to overcome the financial crisis gripping the semi-autonomous region.

While salaries for civil servants were slashed by almost half of what they previously were, they have not been distributed for months.

Chants and signs were directed to both the KRG and the Federal Government of Iraq.

"Baghdad + KRG = empty promises and lies," one of the signs read in Kurdish. "You destroyed the dignity of teachers," another one said, seen at the demonstration in Erbil. "Where are our salaries?"

Over the past few years, the Kurdistan Region has been suffering through a financial crisis, in large part due to federal budget cuts by Baghdad in 2014, the drop of oil prices internationally, the war against the Islamic State (IS), and the sudden influx of 1.8 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Editing by Nadia Riva