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Police Hiring Boom in Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq
6.4.2006
By Frman Abdulrahman in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 171) |
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Villagers and workers are
leaving low-paying jobs to join the police.
In the early morning, Ahmad Salih, a 37-year-old
civil servant, waits in a long queue to get bread at
the only bakery left in his alley. Before the fall
of Saddam Hussein's regime there were several bakers
working in his neighbourhood, but most have now left
to join the police force.
Since April 2003, the force in Sulaimaniyah province
has more than tripled, rising from about 7,000
members to some 20,000 at the end of 2005.
"We want to protect the area's security properly and
provide a safe environment for the people," said
General Jamal Ahmed, head of the Kurdistan regional
police force in Sulaimaniyah.
"Police forces have preserved the prestige of
government and maintained stability in the area. The
more forces we have, the more influence we have."
As the government raised salaries and expanded the
force in Iraq's safest province, men left their old
jobs in agriculture and other struggling sectors to
work as policemen.
New recruits now make 170 US dollars a month – much
more than the 30-dollar monthly wage prior to 2003.
Last year, the starting salary was 220 dollars a
month, but the Sulaimaniyah government decided to
cut the level because the job is less risky than in
other parts of Iraq. However, the pay still compares
well with that of civil servants, some of whose
monthly salary is less than 100 dollars. And a good
number of officers only have to work 15 days out of
every month.
The surge in recruitment has employed thousands who
would otherwise have few opportunities, especially
since police only need to have completed a primary
school education.
Sulaimaniyah has been spared much of the violence
seen in the rest of Iraq, and being a policeman here
is significantly less risky than in other regions
where security forces are prime targets for the
insurgents.
But the recruitment spree has cut into the labour
force in other sectors. Agricultural has suffered
the most, as significant numbers of farmers have
quit their jobs to become officers. As villagers
move their families into urban areas to join the
force, Sulaimaniyah's tight housing market has come
under additional pressure.
"Agriculture in the villages cannot provide for
people, so they have no choice but to seek
alternatives," said Ibrahim Khdir, head of the
agriculture ministry's planning directorate.
Dilshad Ali, 27, from the Shrbazher area north of
Sulaimaniyah, stopped working with his father on the
family vineyard a year ago when he signed up for the
city force.
"I have a decent salary and my job is not hard as my
previous one," he said.
Ali said that of the 35 families in his village,
only eight remain there.
Hamalaw Nasih, a 35-year-old builder, used to have
six construction workers on his team, but four have
gone off to join the police.
"They were getting low wages for a lot of work," he
explained, adding that nowadays, his former
labourers own their own cars.
Nasih now uses Arab workers who come from central
and southern Iraq to seek employment in the northern
Kurdish areas because of security concerns in their
own regions.
Dr Mohammad Rauf, economics professor at the
Sulaimaniyah university, accepts that the government
has reduced unemployment by hiring police officers,
and notes that Kurdistan’s labour market is shifting
from agriculture to service industries. But he
cautions that "the government should pay equal
attention to all economic sectors".
Dilshad Yousif, a 24-year-old police officer, says
the job offers a decent standard of living, but
argues that the wage is well-deserved because of the
potential risks the work entails.
"It's true there is no danger, but if anything does
happen we will be the first victims," he said.
Frman Abdulrahman is an IWPR trainee journalist
in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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