Iran is sending tens of thousands of Afghan refugees back over the border, aid agencies and witnesses say, amid allegations of mistreatment by Iranian authorities.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that just over one million Afghans have been sent back this year, including more than 28,000 Afghans in the last week of October, despite the dire conditions awaiting them.
“The majority were deported, returning to Afghanistan often broke and broken, in need of health support, food and rest,” IOM director general Antonio Vitorino said in a statement on Thursday.
Millions of Afghans crossed into their western neighbour seeking to escape violence and a shattered economy after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in mid-August compounded the crisis, disrupting international aid flows just as severe drought left more than half the population facing acute food shortages.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) estimates as many as 4,000-5,000 Afghans have been crossing into Iran daily since the Taliban seized power, with hundreds of thousands more expected to arrive in the coming winter.
Last month, the UN declared that Afghanistan was on the brink of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than half of the country facing acute food shortages.
IOM said Iran has returned 1,031,757 Afghans to their home country so far this year. The UN migration agency counted at least 3,200 unaccompanied children among them.
Returning Afghans who spoke to the AFP news agency reported being held in crowded, filthy detention camps where some were beaten before being transported to the border crossing.
“They did not see us as humans,” said 19-year-old Abdul Samad, who was working in construction in Iran before he was deported.
Abdul Samad said he was beaten by Iranian authorities in a migrant detention camp because he had no money to pay for his deportation.
“They tied our hands and blindfolded our eyes with pieces of cloth, and insulted us,” he said.
Buses arrive at Islam Qala, on the Afghan side of the main border crossing with Iran, every afternoon. AFP interviewed some 20 returning Afghans, all of whom had tales of mistreatment.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has appealed to all nations to stop the forced returns of Afghans given the “highly volatile situation” and has been continuing to “advocate with the government of Iran”.