Address refugees’ problems via diplomatic channels, IEA urged

ZARANJ (Pajhwok): Some Afghans, who were forcibly expelled from Iran, complain about their harassment by Iranian police and urge the Islamic Emirate to stop the phenomenon through diplomatic channels.

Recently a video was circulating in social media showing young boys being beaten by police in Iran. The caretaker government of Pakistan has given all undocumented Afghans one month’s time to leave the country.

Deportation, voluntary return of tens of thousands of Afghans from Iran

Abdul Rahman Rashid, an official of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said that in the past one month, 46,000 Afghan refugees returned to the country voluntarily from Iran and 46,000 more were forcibly expelled.

Criticizing the ill-treatment of Afghans by Iran and Pakistan, he said MoRR was striving to address the problems being faced by immigrants in different countries.

Views of deported refugees

Hamid, 30, a resident of Takhar, who crossed the border from Nimroz province, told Pajhwok that he traveled to Iran 11 months ago through the border of Nimroz province to work there.

When asked why he crossed the border and went back to Iran after being forcibly deported, he said: “We have to live with this to find a piece of bread, they throw us out every day, but we go back.”

Hamed added he worked for nine months in Bandar Abbas as a daily wager against 250,000 tomans to save money for his family, but he was arrested by Iranian police.

About misbehavior of Iranian police, he said: “After we were arrested, they brought us to “Du Pialeh Camp” and beat us for six days. They insulted us, humiliated us, did not give us food and water. We spent all the money we had earned in detention and returned home empty-handed.”

Meanwhile, 27-year-old Sakhi Ahmed Barez, a resident of Badakhshan province, who returned from Iran, said even though he had a passport and visa, he was arrested and sent across the border.

He added: “I was on my way to work and I had just found a job when police caught me and tore up my passport with a visa and said that this passport is invalid here.”

Sakhi Ahmad said he had borrowed money for his visa from a friend in the hope that he would be able to pay off the loan by working.

He asked the Islamic Emirate to solve problems of Afghan refugees in Iran through diplomatic channels.

Also, 27-year-old Naveed Ahmad, a resident of Kunduz, another returnee, said he worked in a building in Iran for a year, but returned without receiving his wages.

He added: “I was forced to leave my family alone and I went to Iran and worked there as a laborer to earn a piece of bread, I worked in construction of buildings under scorching sun, my hands got smallpox, my back was injured and I did not receive any money and returned home empty-handed.”

Afghan refugees’ harassment fuels concerns

Islamic Emirate authorities have recently called the persecution of Afghan immigrants in Iran and Pakistan as inhumane and against international laws and demanded an end to that.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Deputy Foreign Minister, recently said that the neighboring countries should not misbehave with Afghan immigrants and treat them well according to international migration laws.

He had said efforts were being made to prevent ill-treatment of Afghan immigrants living in neighboring countries through diplomatic means.

sa/ma