RASC News Agency: On Wednesday, September 25, Agence France-Presse (AFP) cited Abdul Ghani Qazizada, a Taliban official stationed at the Islam Qala border in Herat, confirming that an average of over 3,000 returnees from Iran enter Afghanistan daily. Qazizada remarked, “These refugees have endured extensive physical and psychological abuse.” He further revealed that the rate of deportations from Iran has escalated significantly over the past six months.
Qazizada explained, “The refugees are warned to leave within a week or, alternatively, each individual over the age of 18 must deposit 100 million tomans into a designated bank account.” The report adds that each returnee, following scrutiny by aid organizations, receives 2,000 Afghan rupees in cash as relief. One returnee shared his harrowing experience, stating, “The Iranian authorities fined the homeowner where we resided, and [the Iranian police] threw our belongings out of the windows.” He also recounted that his family, along with approximately 3,000 other Afghanistani nationals, had been held in a camp for six days without access to food or water.
Fazila Qadiri, a 26-year-old Afghanistani returnee, detailed the brutality, saying: “For six or seven days, they beat us without distinction between men and women. I saw an Afghanistani die in that camp.” It is worth noting that Iran is currently hosting over five million Afghanistani refugees. Recently, Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for Iran’s National Security Commission, declared that the country plans to deport over two million Afghanistani refugees in the near future. Afghanistani nationals constitute more than 90 percent of the foreign population in Iran, with the majority lacking proper legal documentation.
