25+ workers killed in Kurdistan job accidents

Shafaq News– Al-Sulaymaniyah

At least 25 workers were killed in workplace accidents across parts of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 2025, a local rights organization said on Thursday, attributing the deaths to weak labor protections.

Speaking at a press conference, Helsho Abdul Fattah, head of the Dabin Organization for Human Rights, added that the fatalities resulted from incidents including falls from height, electric shocks, gas explosions, and machinery-related accidents, while the lack of labor laws over the past three years had directly worsened working conditions, particularly in the private sector.

Abdul Fattah added that the Kurdistan Region has been without an active parliament for more than three years, preventing the passage of legislation regulating labor conditions and worker protections, though labor courts recorded 285 worker-related lawsuits over the past 12 months.

Similar incidents have been reported elsewhere in Iraq, including Kirkuk, where workplace accidents have killed or injured dozens of workers last year amid complaints of inadequate inspections and protective measures, sources told Shafaq News at the time.

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