Benyamin Bariz

More than 30,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Iran to Afghanistan through the Islam Qala port in western Herat province in a single day, local officials said on Thursday.

Residents of Ghar Moshak village in Zindajan district of western Herat province say the only health centre in their area has been out of operation for the past five months, leaving them without access to even the most basic health services.

Practical work on a 45-kilometre fiber-optic project worth 42 million afghanis has been launched in western Herat province, an official said on Wednesday.

Amid intensified forced deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran, several returnees complain what they describe as unjust treatment by Iranian police, alleging that illegal fees were extorted from them during the process.

Potato growers in western Herat province are concerned about the increasing import of potatoes from Iran and Pakistan during the harvest season.

A man has been arrested for allegedly killing his father, mother and wife in western Herat province.

Construction work was completed on a first pedestrian flyover bridge at a cost of nine million afghanis in Herat city, the capital of western Herat province, on Saturday, an official announced.

The first hospital in the country dedicated to the treatment of thalassemia (a genetic blood disorder) was inaugurated and put into operation in Herat province.

A number of painters and miniature artists in western Herat province say the lack of a proper market for their artwork has severely impacted their economic situation.

In the past month, at least 20 cases of tribal and family disputes have been resolved through the efforts of the Department of Promotion of Virtue, Prevention of Vice, and Hearing of Complaints in western Herat province.

Herat province governor Sheikh Maulvi Noor Ahmad Islamjar has met his Turkmenistan counterpart Begench Arazov during his visit to the country.

With illegal migration on the rise among jobless Afghan youth, a food factory in western Herat shows how local employment can be a powerful tool in reversing this dangerous trend.