Protesters in Slemani and Halabja demand delayed wages

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, thousands of teachers and civil servants protested in the province of Slemani and Halabja in the Kurdistan Region, demanding their delayed wages.

Protesters took to the streets in several cities in the Kurdistan Region’s Slemani and Halabja provinces to ask the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to end the delay and reduction of the public employees’ salaries.

Dilshad Babani, a teacher and one of the organizers of the protest told Kurdistan24, “We have a peaceful message to the government; we are demanding our own rights so that we can raise our next generation with the best quality education.”

“We will continue our protests until we hear a clear decision from the government,” Babani added.

Teachers have threated to boycott the first day of school across the Kurdistan Region which was scheduled to be on September 27 if their reduced wages were not increased. The KRG Ministry of Education postponed the opening of school for this year to October 1.

Due to the financial crisis in the Kurdistan Region, caused mainly by the budget cut from Baghdad, drop of oil prices, war against the Islamic State (IS) and the influx of 1.6 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees to the Region, the KRG took several austerity measures including reducing the civil servants’ salaries.

This step by the KRG as a way to overcome the current financial crisis angered the public employees across the Kurdistan Region.

The protesters gave a ten-day deadline to the government to change the reduced wages before the protests are resumed.

The KRG through its spokesperson assured the protesters and the people of Kurdistan that the government is putting all its efforts, "using all ways and channels," to resolve the crisis and pay the salaries of the civil servants.  

Hemin Hawrami, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Foreign Relations whose party is leading the current cabinet said that they support the people’s demands, stating that “KDP and the KRG are against using the demand of the people for political gains by some political parties.”

The financial crisis in the Kurdistan Region resulted in a three-month delay of payment for civil servants in 2015 and a two-month delay in 2016.

Editing by Ava Homa