This is Khasab, a fishing village. It has a small port and is a favourite tourist destination. Visitors come here from all over the Arab world and Europe to swim and dive in these clear waters, and to see the wildlife. But there's another side to Khasab - one that the authorities here don't want filmed. Out on the water, boats are moving at high speed. Smugglers' boats and at the port, there's this remarkable scene - tonnes and tonnes of goods waiting to be smuggled the 60km across the water to Iran, where sanctions are biting hard.
MAN (Translation): It is very intensive in Iran, it’s very intensive there, very intensive. It’s smuggled, everything is smuggled.
There's even a two-way trade, with this cargo smuggled from Iran. These young Iranians are ready to set off.
IRANIAN (Translation): I have been coming here for a long time, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 years.
REPORTER (Translation): How many times a day?
IRANIAN (Translation): I come here every day or every two days, depending on ….
REPORTER (Translation): How much freight do you bring?
IRANIAN (Translation): We bring things, and we take drinks from here, that is all.
REPORTER (Translation): Have you faced any dangers on this route?
IRANIAN (Translation): No way. Why should I be scared, this is my job.
But their job does have risks - it takes them across the Straits of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. In reaction to sanctions, Iran has repeatedly threatened to close these waters. And the situation remains tense. But geopolitics means little to the smugglers - they're more worried about where their next meal is coming from.
IRANIAN (Translation): Staying in Iran I’d get 45,000 toman, which isn’t much – I can only get four cans of kidney beans – for 45,000 toman.
This is the only footage left of these young Iranians, shortly after filming this scene, Fouad was arrested and taken to security headquarters. He was released, but security deleted most of his material and he was warned to stay well away from any Iranians. Oman is in a sensitive position - being a friend to both Iran and the United States and the state security here want to make very sure Fouad doesn't rock the boat.
It's time to leave. If this Omani coastline, so close to Iran, is considered porous, then what is happening in northern Iraq is a gaping hole and the situation is far more complicated. This whole north-eastern part of Iraq is controlled by the Kurds, and they have their own government and they control the border with Iran. Here, smuggling in many ways is government-sanctioned, and controlled from both sides of the border.
MAN (Translation): Leave the goods here.
At this border post, all goods are hand-carried by Iranians into Iran. They call them backpackers.
REPORTER (Translation): Why did you come here to work?
MAN (Translation): I came to earn 30,000 toman, 30,000 toman is nothing, you can’t buy a chicken with it. If I wasn’t desperate, would I come to carry all these goods? I had no other option.
The Iranian government will only allow their people to cross the border here with goods. An Iraqi supervisor explains.
SUPERVISOR (Translation): Well, from here we load it onto this truck and take it up there. From there, they hand carry it for about 40 metres – then they use a truck.
REPORTER (Translation): How does the Iranian government send them? Officially or unofficially?
SUPERVISOR (Translation): Officially. The government taxes the goods that enter Iran.
REPORTER (Translation): Isn’t this hard for you, isn’t it dangerous for you?
MAN (Translation): Why? Being in danger is better than having no food to eat.
Up at the border post, the guard - who doesn't want his name used - shows the mass smuggling that occurs at the height of the season.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you come here every day?
MAN (Translation): No, once a month. Once every 30 days. We earn 40,000 toman for one day.
REPORTER (Translation): Why only one day?
MAN (Translation): the law in Iran is based on queuing, there are a lot of workers, so we only get the chance to work once a month.
Unemployment is not confined to the Iranians. Iraq, too, has a huge problem and not far from the border, here in the Kurdish regional capital, men are searching for work.
UNEMPLOYED MAN (Translation): I came from Mosul looking for work and there’s nothing – what do I do? Where do I go? We work for one day and stay without work for ten.
All these men are waiting for a job - any job.
UNEMPLOYED MAN 2 (Translation): Sometimes we work one day a week, sometimes we don’t. Isn’t this true?
CROWD (Translation): It is!
They say their situation has been made worse by refugees from Iran also looking for work.
MAN (Translation): There is no work, we have nothing to do. We had work before, the Iranians arrived and work stopped. We go without work for three or four days. The Iranians compete with us.
A man comes offering work for one person for just one day, and he's quickly surrounded. On the road to another border post, there's a dramatic example of sanctions-busting - tanker after tanker heading for Iran. According to the rest of the world, this is not supposed to be happening. The Kurdish government seem happy to sell their oil to Iran, even though this is hotly contested in Baghdad, where the federal government says it belongs to all Iraqis. These tanker drivers are waiting to cross the border. Fouad has to be careful with filming: He doesn't want to be arrested again.
REPORTER (Translation): Where is the oil from?
MAN (Translation): From Sulaymaniyah, Irbil and Dohak.
MAN 2 (Translation): The central government did not help us with work, we are indebted to Kurdistan for the work.
It's hard to understand why an oil-rich nation like Iran would be buying oil, but according to Dr Khaled Hayder from Sulaymaniyah University, the benefits flow on both sides of the border.
DR KHALED HAYDER, SULAYMANIYAH UNIVERSITY (Translation): What is happening is, whoever is smuggling has a desire to acquire money illegally and the Iranian buyer has a desire to get oil more cheaply than the price of oil extracted there.
But there's also another reason for this massive oil trade - Baghdad won't let them take it through Iraq, saying the Kurds are stealing it from the Iraqi people. There are reports of the Kurds trucking their oil all the way to the southern ports of Iran, and from there, it could go anywhere.
MAN (Translation): At Firoz Khan, 400 to 500 tankers cross every day.
REPORTER (Translation): Do they cross legally at the official boarders?
MAN (Translation): At the official borders – at Bashman, legally.
REPORTER (Translation): On both sides?
MAN (Translation): Official on both sides.
According to Dr Hayder, both sides in Iraq point the finger at each other.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): Just as the federal government accuses the Kurdish regional government of oil smuggling, Kurdish accuses the federal government, with evidence, of allowing oil to be smuggled abroad. And just as the Kurdish regional government defends itself, the federal government in Baghdad defends itself, saying there is no smuggling, it is organised and supervised. What is stated in the media is that these operations take place behind the governments back.
REPORTER (Translation): What difficulties do you face on the road?
MAN (Translation): It,s not bad. Too much humiliation from the Persians, Iran. Iranians don’t respect Iraqis – they throw rocks at Iraqi tankers.
REPORTER (Translation): But they benefit from you, they are under embargo?
MAN (Translation): A couple of days ago they killed a driver from Irbil, they stabbed him – they wanted his money.
While these men wait in the burning heat, both the Kurds and Baghdad distance themselves from the trade. For many in Iraq, the sanctions imposed upon Iran are an echo of their own recent history.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): America and the Security Council had an embargo, an economic embargo against Iraq, the embargo impacted the people not the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government lived it up in an unimaginable way.
And, as always, it will be the powerless who will pay in the end.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): Same with this, the embargo impacts the Iranian people, not Iranian officials.
ANJALI RAO: Fouad Hady in Oman and Iraq, and doing his best to keep out of the clutches of the authorities. Vicki Stroble was the narrator.
Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY
Narrator
VICTORIA STROBL
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer/Photographs supplied by
AFSHIN VALINEJAD
Translations
DALIA MATAR
AVAN ALBARZANJI
NASIBA AKRAM
MAYADA KURDI
SUHEIL DAMOUNY
Editor
NICK O’BRIEN
Original music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
MAN (Translation): It is very intensive in Iran, it’s very intensive there, very intensive. It’s smuggled, everything is smuggled.
There's even a two-way trade, with this cargo smuggled from Iran. These young Iranians are ready to set off.
IRANIAN (Translation): I have been coming here for a long time, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 years.
REPORTER (Translation): How many times a day?
IRANIAN (Translation): I come here every day or every two days, depending on ….
REPORTER (Translation): How much freight do you bring?
IRANIAN (Translation): We bring things, and we take drinks from here, that is all.
REPORTER (Translation): Have you faced any dangers on this route?
IRANIAN (Translation): No way. Why should I be scared, this is my job.
But their job does have risks - it takes them across the Straits of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. In reaction to sanctions, Iran has repeatedly threatened to close these waters. And the situation remains tense. But geopolitics means little to the smugglers - they're more worried about where their next meal is coming from.
IRANIAN (Translation): Staying in Iran I’d get 45,000 toman, which isn’t much – I can only get four cans of kidney beans – for 45,000 toman.
This is the only footage left of these young Iranians, shortly after filming this scene, Fouad was arrested and taken to security headquarters. He was released, but security deleted most of his material and he was warned to stay well away from any Iranians. Oman is in a sensitive position - being a friend to both Iran and the United States and the state security here want to make very sure Fouad doesn't rock the boat.
It's time to leave. If this Omani coastline, so close to Iran, is considered porous, then what is happening in northern Iraq is a gaping hole and the situation is far more complicated. This whole north-eastern part of Iraq is controlled by the Kurds, and they have their own government and they control the border with Iran. Here, smuggling in many ways is government-sanctioned, and controlled from both sides of the border.
MAN (Translation): Leave the goods here.
At this border post, all goods are hand-carried by Iranians into Iran. They call them backpackers.
REPORTER (Translation): Why did you come here to work?
MAN (Translation): I came to earn 30,000 toman, 30,000 toman is nothing, you can’t buy a chicken with it. If I wasn’t desperate, would I come to carry all these goods? I had no other option.
The Iranian government will only allow their people to cross the border here with goods. An Iraqi supervisor explains.
SUPERVISOR (Translation): Well, from here we load it onto this truck and take it up there. From there, they hand carry it for about 40 metres – then they use a truck.
REPORTER (Translation): How does the Iranian government send them? Officially or unofficially?
SUPERVISOR (Translation): Officially. The government taxes the goods that enter Iran.
REPORTER (Translation): Isn’t this hard for you, isn’t it dangerous for you?
MAN (Translation): Why? Being in danger is better than having no food to eat.
Up at the border post, the guard - who doesn't want his name used - shows the mass smuggling that occurs at the height of the season.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you come here every day?
MAN (Translation): No, once a month. Once every 30 days. We earn 40,000 toman for one day.
REPORTER (Translation): Why only one day?
MAN (Translation): the law in Iran is based on queuing, there are a lot of workers, so we only get the chance to work once a month.
Unemployment is not confined to the Iranians. Iraq, too, has a huge problem and not far from the border, here in the Kurdish regional capital, men are searching for work.
UNEMPLOYED MAN (Translation): I came from Mosul looking for work and there’s nothing – what do I do? Where do I go? We work for one day and stay without work for ten.
All these men are waiting for a job - any job.
UNEMPLOYED MAN 2 (Translation): Sometimes we work one day a week, sometimes we don’t. Isn’t this true?
CROWD (Translation): It is!
They say their situation has been made worse by refugees from Iran also looking for work.
MAN (Translation): There is no work, we have nothing to do. We had work before, the Iranians arrived and work stopped. We go without work for three or four days. The Iranians compete with us.
A man comes offering work for one person for just one day, and he's quickly surrounded. On the road to another border post, there's a dramatic example of sanctions-busting - tanker after tanker heading for Iran. According to the rest of the world, this is not supposed to be happening. The Kurdish government seem happy to sell their oil to Iran, even though this is hotly contested in Baghdad, where the federal government says it belongs to all Iraqis. These tanker drivers are waiting to cross the border. Fouad has to be careful with filming: He doesn't want to be arrested again.
REPORTER (Translation): Where is the oil from?
MAN (Translation): From Sulaymaniyah, Irbil and Dohak.
MAN 2 (Translation): The central government did not help us with work, we are indebted to Kurdistan for the work.
It's hard to understand why an oil-rich nation like Iran would be buying oil, but according to Dr Khaled Hayder from Sulaymaniyah University, the benefits flow on both sides of the border.
DR KHALED HAYDER, SULAYMANIYAH UNIVERSITY (Translation): What is happening is, whoever is smuggling has a desire to acquire money illegally and the Iranian buyer has a desire to get oil more cheaply than the price of oil extracted there.
But there's also another reason for this massive oil trade - Baghdad won't let them take it through Iraq, saying the Kurds are stealing it from the Iraqi people. There are reports of the Kurds trucking their oil all the way to the southern ports of Iran, and from there, it could go anywhere.
MAN (Translation): At Firoz Khan, 400 to 500 tankers cross every day.
REPORTER (Translation): Do they cross legally at the official boarders?
MAN (Translation): At the official borders – at Bashman, legally.
REPORTER (Translation): On both sides?
MAN (Translation): Official on both sides.
According to Dr Hayder, both sides in Iraq point the finger at each other.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): Just as the federal government accuses the Kurdish regional government of oil smuggling, Kurdish accuses the federal government, with evidence, of allowing oil to be smuggled abroad. And just as the Kurdish regional government defends itself, the federal government in Baghdad defends itself, saying there is no smuggling, it is organised and supervised. What is stated in the media is that these operations take place behind the governments back.
REPORTER (Translation): What difficulties do you face on the road?
MAN (Translation): It,s not bad. Too much humiliation from the Persians, Iran. Iranians don’t respect Iraqis – they throw rocks at Iraqi tankers.
REPORTER (Translation): But they benefit from you, they are under embargo?
MAN (Translation): A couple of days ago they killed a driver from Irbil, they stabbed him – they wanted his money.
While these men wait in the burning heat, both the Kurds and Baghdad distance themselves from the trade. For many in Iraq, the sanctions imposed upon Iran are an echo of their own recent history.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): America and the Security Council had an embargo, an economic embargo against Iraq, the embargo impacted the people not the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government lived it up in an unimaginable way.
And, as always, it will be the powerless who will pay in the end.
DR KHALED HAYDER (Translation): Same with this, the embargo impacts the Iranian people, not Iranian officials.
ANJALI RAO: Fouad Hady in Oman and Iraq, and doing his best to keep out of the clutches of the authorities. Vicki Stroble was the narrator.
Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY
Narrator
VICTORIA STROBL
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer/Photographs supplied by
AFSHIN VALINEJAD
Translations
DALIA MATAR
AVAN ALBARZANJI
NASIBA AKRAM
MAYADA KURDI
SUHEIL DAMOUNY
Editor
NICK O’BRIEN
Original music composed by
VICKI HANSEN