Dump truck drivers block Kirkuk road over checkpoint scanner waits

KIRKUK — Dump truck drivers who carry sand and gravel into Kirkuk blocked the road at the Daraman checkpoint for several hours Thursday morning, putting tires and stones across it, to protest long waits at the checkpoint’s cargo scanner.

Dozens of dump trucks and other trucks had piled up in a line at the checkpoint, which sits on the road between Kirkuk and Erbil, 964media correspondents reported.

Several drivers told 964media that they make only short local runs and never leave the area.

“Our work is from Qara Salem into Kirkuk and the Shwan junction. We load sand and gravel, and we don’t go outside the city. If we go through the scanner, we have to stay in the line from morning to evening. We can’t work like this,” the drivers said.

“There is no law and no government in this city. This checkpoint is a government of its own, and the Chiman checkpoint is another government. The city has no owner, and everyone in this city is a government unto himself,” said Amer Aziz, one of the drivers.

The drivers said their work is legal and that they cannot be held up at the checkpoint for three to four hours every day.

Daraman and the Chiman checkpoint on the Kirkuk-Sulaymaniyah road are two of four internal customs offices the federal government opened in February along the boundary with the Kurdistan Region. They check documents and collect any difference between the tariffs charged at federal crossings and those charged at the Region’s own crossings.

In July, the Federal Commission of Integrity arrested six employees at the Daraman crossing on allegations that they deliberately held up customs paperwork to extort money from people passing through.