- Title: Basra Bedouin family find lucrative business in car scrapping
- Date: 24th July 2017
- Summary: BASRA, IRAQ (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SCRAPPED AND ABANDONED VEHICLES AND PARTS AT CAR YARD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CO-OWNER OF CAR YARD, NASSIR HILLAL, SAYING: "Starting as one garage, the business was quickly expanded into 60 breaker's yards in Zubair. We bought old cars and brought them here to take them apart, which is better than leaving them in the streets, houses or alleyways. By doing this we benefit and also the people, the government and the owners of the cars benefit too." VARIOUS OF MEN WALKING AROUND JUNK YARD VARIOUS OF SCRAPPED CARS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CO-OWNER OF CAR YARD, NASSIR HILLAL, SAYING: "People are coming from Kut, Diwaniya, Samawa, Amara and elsewhere, even from Safwan. The borders used to be open with Kuwait and people from Safwan used to go to Kuwait to bring parts, but now the borders are closed, therefore people started to come here to take engines and fix them for resale. The prices here are cheaper than in the industrial area of Hamdan where a car engine is sold for 800, 700 or even 900 dollars, which is equal to more than one million Iraqi dinars, while here it can be bought at 200 to 250 USD or a maximum 300 USD." VARIOUS OF CARS AND PARTS AT SCRAP YARD VARIOUS OF MEN WORKING ON CAR SPARE PARTS AT YARD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GARAGE OWNER, JASSAM KHUDHIER MOHAMMED, SAYING: "We were Bedouins. We used to roam places. Animals need food and other things and prices went up, so we sold the animals and started this business. The business helps provide a place for the family in the district and we work from morning until noon." VARIOUS OF MEN DISMANTLING CARS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CO-OWNER OF CAR YARD, JASSAM KHUDHIER MOHAMMED, SAYING: "We used to dismantle one, two maybe three (cars) a day, and that increased to ten a day, but now it has decreased to one a day or sometimes none or one a week because of the state's decision to give out registration license plates. However, the decision has not been enacted yet and people are still coming to fetch plate numbers." VARIOUS OF CAR PARTS IN YARD CO-OWNER OF CAR YARD, JASSAM KHUDHIER MOHAMMED, STANDING NEAR CAR PARTS
- Embargoed: 7th August 2017 13:01
- Keywords: Scrap metal Basra Bedouins Iraqi district of al-Zubair scrap cars car junkyard car scrapping
- Location: BASRA, IRAQ
- City: BASRA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0016R2R9SL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hundreds of old and rusty cars, buses and trucks lay abandoned in a junk yard west of the district of al-Zubair in the southern Iraqi province of Basra.
Run by a family of Bedouins, the scrap yard is known amongst locals as the 'Garages of the Bedouins'.
And the yard has provided the family with a lucrative business in car spare parts.
First started by two brothers in 2003, the breaker's yard business - a place where old cars are taken apart and the parts are sold - quickly boomed.
Since then, the business has attracted more of their relatives to join, who each own a patch of land inside the yards in Zubair.
"Starting as one garage, the business was quickly expanded into 60 breaker's yards in Zubair. We bought old cars and brought them here to take them apart, which is better than leaving them in the streets, houses or alleyways. By doing this we benefit and also the people, the government and the owners of the cars benefit too," said Nassir Hillal, one of the owners of the car yard.
The yard has now provides car spare parts to customers across the southern Iraqi provinces and even in Baghdad, where motorists can get parts much cheaper than elsewhere.
"People are coming from Kut, Diwaniya, Samawa, Amara and elsewhere, even from Safwan. The borders used to be open with Kuwait and people from Safwan used to go to Kuwait to bring parts, but now the borders are closed, therefore people started to come here to take engines and fix them for resale. The prices here are cheaper than in the industrial area of Hamdan where a car engine is sold for 800, 700 or even 900 dollars, which is equal to more than one million Iraqi dinars, while here it can be bought at 200 to 250 USD or a maximum 300 USD," added Hillal.
Another family member and co-owner Jassam Khudhier Mohammed said that the family have abandoned their main profession of tending to camels in favour of the car scrapping business.
"We were Bedouins. We used to roam places. Animals need food and other things and prices went up, so we sold the animals and started this business. The business helps provide a place for the family in the district and we work from morning until noon," he said.
After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, Iraq opened its borders to tariff-free trade, and Iraqis were keen to buy imported cars.
The resulting influx of new cars boosted the number of cars in circulation in Iraq - and provided more old cars for the scrap yard.
According to Mohammed, they buy used cars from owners, dismantling them to sell their spare parts.
They also resell the license plates and the engines and car bodies can be sold to government-owned steel and iron factories for recycling.
Business has slowed down, added Mohammed, since the government introduced new laws around buying and selling license plates.
But for now the family have found a profitable business that benefits both them and Iraqi car owners -- allowing cars and spare parts to be bought and sold at favourable prices. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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