Middle East Eye: A booming underground trade in alcohol in Iraq after it was banned in 2023

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[size=52]Middle East Eye: A booming underground trade in alcohol in Iraq after it was banned in 2023[/size]

[size=45]Translated by / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]A report by the British website, Middle East Eye, dealt with the hidden boom in trade in local and imported alcoholic beverages in Iraq, after the legislation of a law prohibiting their manufacture and import, which was approved by Parliament last year.[/size]
[size=45]Revealing what merchants and promoters of these goods made in paying bribes amounting to tens of thousands of dollars so that trucks loaded with imported and locally made drinks could cross several checkpoints to reach Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces, which contributed to increasing their prices exponentially and had an adverse impact on the members of minorities, including Yazidis and Christians, who practice the profession. Selling alcohol means losing a source of livelihood for them and their families.[/size]
[size=45]Behind the huge iron doors of an ordinary-looking building in the middle of a commercial district in central Baghdad, there lie thousands of boxes of alcoholic beverages carefully arranged one above the other on high wooden shelves. Mountains of international brands of alcoholic beverages are stacked next to homemade drinks, carefully arranged according to the type and type of drink. Corridors pass through walls of boxes and packages leading from room to room, revealing a storehouse and warehouse with a high degree of organization and arrangement for this trade.[/size]
[size=45]Middle East Eye notes in its report that a cadre of members of the Christian community in particular are busy organizing alcohol stores and loading the goods to transport them to the consumer. Most of the goods are headed to alcohol outlets, bars, and nightclubs in Baghdad, and some of them are hidden inside civilian cars and buses that make their way to other Iraqi governorates. Tony, a store owner who has worked in the alcohol trade for more than 30 years, says, “We are still working in the alcohol trade, but in a secret, illegal way.” Pointing out that since the law banning the import and sale of alcohol was passed in March 2023, everything is done and done through bribes.[/size]
[size=45]He adds that with the rise in taxes, paying huge bribes at every checkpoint has become another important burden of expenses they face in what has become known as underground trade.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that all alcohol goods enter the country through the Kurdistan region, where there is no ban on their sale or import, and from there the goods are shipped south to Baghdad, passing through several checkpoints, each of which requires payment. Alcohol trader, Samir, says, “Previously, the cost of passing a truck loaded with alcohol from the Kurdistan region to Baghdad ranged around 3,000 dollars, but now the average cost has reached 50,000, because we have to pay taxes and pay bribes at every checkpoint we pass through.” We are talking about six to seven checkpoints on each trip.”[/size]
[size=45]Middle East Eye says that such checkpoints have become so profitable for those who manage them that military personnel pay bribes among themselves to obtain a job at a specific checkpoint located on a transit corridor for trucks transporting alcohol towards Baghdad. Tony, a liquor store owner, says, “Despite the ban, you must obtain a trade license.” We are still submitting requests and paying, but we are not receiving any receipts or official papers now.” Tony showed one of the newly issued documents allowing the passage of small trucks loaded with alcohol towards Baghdad. He described these documents as “official and at the same time unofficial,” deploring the situation as things are now.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad's warehouses are stocked with several varieties of homemade beer, which is made in the few Iraqi factories still operating in northern Iraq, and these goods face similar challenges.[/size]
[size=45]One of the owners of beer preparation factories told Middle East Eye Taba, not to mention his name, “The factory is still operating because I pay. For this year, I paid taxes and also paid an amount for vacation, but without any receipts.”[/size]
[size=45]Trader Samir says, “The government began restricting the granting of licenses for trading and selling alcohol in 2009, and in the following five years it was very difficult to obtain a license, and many of those dealing in this trade either stopped this profession or began working secretly and illegally.” But then in 2016, things started to become easier.” But in 2023, the Iraqi government passed a law banning alcohol, something traders claim was passed in a deceptive secret way.[/size]
[size=45]Youssef, another alcohol trader, says, “All new or updated Iraqi laws must pass through three separate readings in Parliament, but this law was included with several other laws, and during the first two readings they did not refer to the ban on alcohol.” On the third reading, the ban was introduced suddenly, which surprised a section of Parliament members who did not have enough time to prepare their interventions and objections against it. That is why the law was passed easily.”[/size]
[size=45]Those who still continue this profession say that the law targeted a segment of the religious minority in Iraq, as most of those practicing this profession are Yazidis and Christians who were killed and displaced at the hands of ISIS.[/size]
[size=45]Youssef says, “We have now lost 50% of the people who were working in this trade. The only ones remaining among us are religious minorities who can obtain a license. We see that this law targets members of minorities.”[/size]
[size=45]Khalil, a Yazidi resident of Sinjar, told Middle East Eye, “This law particularly affected the poor among us.” Hundreds of Yazidis work in Baghdad in the field of selling alcohol, where they send the money they earn to their families there in Sinjar to cover treatment expenses and other matters. As soon as this material is scarce from Baghdad’s stores, the losers will be our families and our sources of livelihood.”[/size]
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