One of his customers in Mosul asks Abu Staif why he would bother to make the long journey from Syria; for example anyone travelling from Raqqa, the IS group's “capital” in Syria, needs to drive for more than eight hours, over almost 500 kilometres. Abu Staif answered that he could almost double his profits in Mosul. “And here I buy used products from Mosul housewives and return with them to Raqqa where I sell them again,” he explained. “I just want to make a living.”
Abu Staif explains that each of his journeys from Raqqa to Mosul will last about two weeks so he's fitted his car out with cooking facilities and all the things he needs for overnight stays; mostly he and his friends spend their nights in car parks in the west of the city.
Of course, not all of the Syrian travellers are like Abu Staif. Some have now rented actual storefronts in Mosul's commercial centres, places like Bab al-Saray and the Corniche markets. And bigger changes are coming. The IS group has decided to make the street vendors organise themselves more formally.
Shortly all of the sellers trading day and night, from trucks and cars, will be expected to park and sell in a new market in the central commercial district. Locals say it's not just because this would make the streets more orderly but because the IS group plan to charge the Syrian merchants tax too.
(Mosul image via Shutterstock)
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