The Kurdish kaçakç? on the Iran-Turkey border: corruption and survival as EU sponsored counter-smuggling effects

Abstract This article examines people smuggling in the Kurdish borders between Turkey and Iran, describes how members of local border communities use their roles as kaçakç? (smuggler Turkish) to navigate externalised EU controls amid internal displacement poverty. It draws upon ethnographic data collection 2020 2022 Turkey-Iran that has not been considered studies on EU-supported external counter-smuggling. specifically narrows down corruption, an often mentioned yet understudied element smuggling, discusses payment bribes officials, creation riskier routes facilitate crossing. We show unequal access corruption allow some attempts result relatively uneventful passages while others are permeated by risks death. While vilified governments, is also widely known accepted a social equalizer: safety valve allows marginalized Kurds – both security guards precarity survive borderland enforcement regimes. Our analysis from perspectives working context conflict seeks move away dominant lens used which almost solely examined it form transnational organized crime and/or governance.