Public sector workers in Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq, have endured irregular and delayed salary payments for more than a decade. Many of these people are owed staggering amounts of money – US$50,000 (£38,700) on average, and as much as US$120,000 for higher-level employees.
The region’s 6.5 million inhabitants have been caught in the middle of an unresolved political and financial conflict between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad. The conflict centres on disputes primarily over territorial control and oil revenues.
