Dozens of Iranians crossed into Iraq’s Kurdish region on Sunday, the first day the Haji Omeran border reopened after weeks of closure, seeking lower‑priced food, internet access and work. Travelers said relentless airstrikes and soaring prices have made life in Iran increasingly desperate, prompting many to turn to the nearby Iraqi market for relief.
“The border’s closure affected everyone—poor people, rich people, workers,” said Khider Chomani, a truck driver heading back to Iran with goods. Trucks laden with merchandise snaked through the Haji Omeran crossing from Iraq’s Kurdish region, offering a hoped‑for respite from the high costs on the Iranian side.
Even before the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, Iranian Kurds routinely crossed into Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, sharing deep familial, cultural and economic ties. Now, with the border open, Iraq’s Kurdish region has become a crucial lifeline for Iranians caught in the war‑torn zone to reach the outside world.
A Kurdish woman from Piranshahr crossed the border to make a phone call and stock up on essentials. “In most of Iran there is no internet,” she said. “For more than 16 days my relatives haven’t heard from me, and they are worried.” She bought rice and cooking oil at a fraction of the price back home and hurried back across the border with two plastic bags of groceries for her children.
An elderly woman veiled in a black shawl walked alone from Sardasht in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province toward Choman in Iraq’s Kurdish region, hoping distant relatives could help after her son—a cross‑border smuggler—was shot and killed by Iranian soldiers 14 months earlier. With food prices surging, she is two months behind on rent and struggling to feed three children.
Iranian workers from three cities were piled into a taxi as they returned from a visit home, planning to stay another month in the Iraqi Kurdish region to earn enough money to manage rising costs back home. “The situation will only become worse and civilians will be the only ones affected,” one worker said. “We left our kids and wives just to come and work here and make some money, otherwise we would not have left them alone.”
Airstrikes have devastated Iranian military, intelligence and police installations, forcing officers to avoid official buildings and shelter in civilian sites such as schools, hospitals or vehicles. “They don’t stay in their offices,” a metal‑factory worker who now lives in the Iraqi Kurdish region explained. “They stay in their cars, under bridges, in schools and hospitals. Their bases are destroyed.”
The reopening of the Haji Omeran crossing underscores how the broader conflict is reshaping daily survival for civilians on both sides of the border, turning a once‑routine trade route into a vital conduit for food, communication and livelihood.