Afghan migrants deported from Pakistan, Iran criticizes ill-treatment

Afghan migrants who have been forcibly deported from the nations have called for international attention to their plight, criticizing abuses by authorities in Pakistan and Iran, according to TOLOnews.

People who returned from Iran said they were beaten there by Iranian government forces. At the same time, the people of Pakistan expressed concern over the increasing challenges facing them in that country.

Basir, an Afghan returnee who spent nearly two years in Iran and was recently deported with his three children, said: “When they wanted to search us, I resisted and they beat me. Now, I don’t know if my ribs are broken or what happened to me, I can’t even lift two kilograms,” TOLOnews reported.

Whereas, Salahuddin, another exile from Iran, said: “We went to Iran out of compulsion to take care of our children, and they made it very difficult for us.”

On the other hand, lamenting about the situation, Reza Sajesh, an Afghan expatriate in Pakistan, said: “Even those who had cards were deported from Quetta and Islamabad, Pakistan, and we Concerned about this process.”

However, the Taliban consul in Karachi, Pakistan, urged the country’s authorities to provide additional time to Afghan migrants to return.

According to the Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, about 2,800 Afghan migrants returned from Iran on May 1, both voluntarily and forcibly, according to TOLOnews.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, especially the rights of women and girls as well as religious and ethnic minorities, as grave, citing the urgent need for humanitarian assistance for the 23.7 million people there. . survive.

According to the report, Iran and Pakistan host about 7.7 million Afghan nationals, of whom about 1.6 million have been deported to Afghanistan since 2021.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International and some human rights organizations have expressed concern over the continuing process of expelling Afghan migrants from Pakistan and demanded a stop to this trend.