On International Workers’ Day, laborers in Qamishlo lament absence of rights for working-class

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – International Workers’ Day is considered a celebration of laborers and the working class across much of the world, but for these workers in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), it is just another day where their search for fleeting temporary employment continues.

One of these workers is 61-year-old Omer Seyid Bekir, a father of seven daughters from Qamishlo (Qamishli). For years, he has toiled alone to provide for his family.

Even on International Workers’ Day, Bekir prepares his bicycle to travel to the city center’s bazaar (market) where he will wait alongside other unemployed laborers for opportunities to earn a day’s wages.

Although Bekir is in no state for heavy work, suffering from many illnesses including partial deafness, he says that if he does not provide for his family, then his children will starve.

“I’m 61 years old, and still I perform hard labor,” he tells Kurdistan 24. “I know it is hard for me, but I have no choice. I have several daughters. I am the only one capable of providing for them.”

Against the wall at a market in Qamishli, Bekir gathers with a group of other laborers as they wait for someone to provide them with offers of work so they can feed their families.

“We have no tools other than our hands,” Reid Ibrahim, one of the laborers, explains. “Nobody asks about us; nobody gives us our rights.”

“We stand shoulder to shoulder against these walls from morning until afternoon. If there is work, we work. If not, we return home. Nobody has expressed any concerns about our unemployment.”

The number of laborers who gather to look for day work at the market in Qamishli sometimes reaches 100. Many of them say there is often nothing to be found and they are forced to return home empty-handed.

On the international day of the worker, these laborers expressed their complaints and said their government had abandoned them.

“Even during this ‘holiday,’ we come here and look for work. If there is an opportunity, then we work,” one laborer, Bave Hesen, told Kurdistan 24. “This holiday is for the wealthy, not the poor.”

Another laborer said their rights as workers have been lost, recalling the story of one of his friends, a father of five, who was injured on the job but received no insurance or workers’ compensation of any kind. 

“On the days leading up to elections, politicians make promises to us, but after the elections, they throw us out on the streets,” he told Kurdistan 24.

There are a significant number of working-class laborers in Rojava who remain unemployed. During the time of the Syrian regime until today, there is an absence of an adequate syndicate or union for these laborers. As a result, there is no guarantee of employment or compensation if they are injured on any jobs they are lucky enough to find. 

Editing by John J. Catherine 

(Additional reporting by Dilovan Ceto)