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What if you could make a year's worth of pay in just a couple months? I mean, there is a catch. You would have to leave your family behind. That's a choice that many Iranians make. With a worsening economy, some decide to travel to Turkey, hoping to find temporary work to provide for their families. But the jobs that they're looking for don't always materialize. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi was there when a bus full of Iranians pulled up in Istanbul.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUS HORN HONKING)
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: It's about 6:30 in the morning. A bus that says Royal Iranian Travel just pulled up, and more than a dozen people just walked out of the bus. A lot of them look very, very tired.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUITCASE HITTING THE GROUND)
AL-SHALCHI: Forty-five-year-old construction worker Abbas pulls his suitcase from the bus and waits on the sidewalk of the Aksaray neighborhood in Istanbul. This place has been a hub for Iranian tourists and businesspeople for decades. Today, it's dark and cold. People light up cigarettes and huddle in small groups.
ABBAS: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: Abbas traveled for days from the city of Qom to Turkey, hoping to find work and send money back to his wife and two kids.
ABBAS: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "Our economic situation isn't good at all," says Abbas.
ABBAS: Very bad. Very bad.
AL-SHALCHI: Iran's inflation rate hovers at 90%, and the cost of living has skyrocketed since the war began. Today in Iran, the price of meat has gone up over 40%. Bread has tripled. All the Iranians who spoke to NPR for this report are working illegally in Turkey and asked us not to use their full names for fear of deportation. Many will travel days to find work under the table here on a 90-day tourist visa. Abbas got in touch with an agent who matches Iranians looking for work with jobs.
ABBAS: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "I was told the employer is supposed to come pick me up," he says, rubbing his hands in the cold. But Abbas says he doesn't have a phone number for the employer or the agent. He just trusts that someone will come get him.
RAMIN: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "No, you can't trust the agent," says 34-year-old Ramin (ph), as he stands in front of a closed bank. He has a friend who secured him a job and a place to stay.
RAMIN: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "If you don't know the employer, they mess with you," he says. "They don't pay you. They throw you out." It's what happened to 24-year-old Yasin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUITCASE WHEELS ROLLING)
AL-SHALCHI: Every day, he rolls his suitcase down a cobblestone street from the park where he sleeps to the mosque where he waits with a handful of other homeless Iranians looking for work.
YASIN: (Through interpreter) When this mosque opens, we can use the bathroom and drink some water.
AL-SHALCHI: Yasin wears a sweatshirt with the hood pulled around his face to keep out the cold.
YASIN: (Through interpreter) Even if you find work in Iran, you only make enough for that night's dinner.
AL-SHALCHI: Yasin left his family in central Iran and traveled six days by land to get here. He paid an agent a hundred dollars to find him work at a doorknob factory.
YASIN: (Through interpreter) The agent takes it all at once. There's no guarantee that the employer will pay. None of it is clear.
AL-SHALCHI: Yasin was kicked out of the factory after working there for a month, with only a quarter of the pay he was promised.
YASIN: (Through interpreter) I haven't saved even a few cents.
AL-SHALCHI: And now, Yasin only has a couple of days left on his visa.
YASIN: (Through interpreter) I'm scared the police will catch me and deport me. I don't have the money to go back to Iran.
MOHAMED REZA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: Travel agent Mohamed Reza reads off a list of names taped to his desk - Iranians who, like Yasin, didn't have the fare to go home.
REZA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "Since I have a bus company, I send them back for free," he says. "I keep a record of the names, but I don't expect them to repay." Reza says it's been hard to sell bus tickets to Iran lately, but the other way is different.
REZA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "Buses come from Iran nearly full of workers who have lots of hope," he says.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: Back at the mosque, 35-year-old Rasul hangs out with other Iranians looking for jobs. For almost 15 years, he's come to Turkey for months at a time to work.
RASUL: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "With a year of work in Iran, I couldn't put together the kind of money I make here in two months," he says. But after the war, the market in Turkey is now saturated with job-seeking Iranians. He hasn't been able to find work for weeks. He missed his son's first day of school.
RASUL: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "I gave up on the money and just want to leave," he says. It's hard for him to go back having lost money traveling to Turkey.
RASUL: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "This time, it's become like hell for me," he says. "It's like death." Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Istanbul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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