HERAT -- Afghan refugees recently deported from Iran who spoke to Salaam Times from the United Nations (UN) camp in Herat city last week said they had witnessed beatings, torture and extortion carried out by the Iranian forces.
Iranian soldiers detained Ghor province native Gulbuddin Tajik at his workplace and took all his money from him, the 31-year-old told Salaam Times on Thursday (September 14) from the Herat city camp.
Tajik said he was imprisoned and deported after a month, actions he described as typical of the type of harassment Afghan immigrants face in Iran.
"Iranian security forces arrest and detain Afghans to extort money from them," he said. "Detainees who don’t pay are kept in detention for months."
![Afghan refugees deported from Iran are seen September 14 inside a UN refugee camp in Herat city. [Emran/Salaam Times]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/09/19/44065-h_1-739_416.webp)
Afghan refugees deported from Iran are seen September 14 inside a UN refugee camp in Herat city. [Emran/Salaam Times]
Tajik said this is not the first time he has faced such harassment.
"I went to Iran last year as well for work," he said. "Iranian police detained me at my workplace and imprisoned me for six months."
"In the beginning, they asked me for money, but I didn’t have any to pay them, so they kept me in detention," he said.
After six months, Tajik said, he was able to raise the 20 million tomans ($444) the Iranian government demanded of him with the help of his family and friends, and he was released.
Kabul native Shakerullah Khaksar, 32, also speaking from the UN camp, accused the Iranian government of detaining refugees without any legal justification.
"An innocent relative of ours was imprisoned in Iran for a year and eight months," he said. "The Iranian government did not release him until his family paid 30 million tomans ($667)."
The relative was deported to Afghanistan "a few days ago," he said.
He accused Iranian forces of detaining Afghan refugees "to clean prison toilets," and said refugees have been subjected to torture in prisons.
Sometimes the ill treatment is motivated by money, he added, accusing the Iranian military of treating Afghan refugees violently "to extort money from their families."
'Extortion and torture'
Kabul province native Aminullah Haidary, 24, who was recently deported from Iran, is currently residing at the UN camp in Herat city.
He told Salaam Times he had witnessed Iranian forces beating Afghan refugees who had not committed any crime, and accused the Iranian government of detaining Afghans merely to extort money from them.
He said detainees are forced to remain at detention centers unless they pay.
"Police in the camps and detention centers harass Afghans just for fun," Haidary said. "They have no regard for Afghans and do not care about their needs."
Herat province native Barakatullah Mohammadi, also recently deported from Iran, said Iranian soldiers took all his money on the way.
"I was working in a shop in Kerman province of Iran," he said from the UN camp in Herat city Thursday.
"Police came and transferred me to prison without letting me take my salary of 5 million tomans ($111)," he said. "I had 2 million tomans ($44) in cash with me, all of which they took from me."
"The Iranian security forces severely beat us when they transferred us to the car to bring us to the border and were demanding money," he told Salaam Times. "But none of us had any money left to pay them."
Iranian soldiers humiliate Afghan refugees and do not see them as human beings, Mohammadi said.
Violation of human rights
By mistreating Afghan refugees in Iran, Iranian military forces show they have no respect for the law, Herat-based human rights activist Jamshid Haqyar said.
The arbitrary detention of Afghan refugees by the Iranian security forces is a violation of human rights and must stop immediately, he said.
"Circumstances have forced Afghans to seek refuge and work in Iran and find food for their families," he said. "The mistreatment and detention of these refugees have made their lives bitter."
"People who commit a crime should be dealt with in accordance with the law," Haqyar said. "But extrajudicial and arbitrary detention of Afghan workers in Iran has no justification."
"The Iranian government must be held accountable for detaining and torturing Afghan refugees in that country," he said, adding that it is obliged to treat Afghan refugees in accordance with internationally accepted laws and principles.
Increasingly severe pressure by the Iranian government has made life for Afghan refugees difficult in that country, Badghis province activist Mohammad Zubair Nasrat told Salaam Times.
"As a neighbor, Iran treats Afghan refugees in that country in the worst way," he said, describing the Iranian government's conduct as "inhumane and un-neighborly."
"For years, the Iranian military has been detaining, torturing, mistreating and killing Afghan refugees in its borders and cities," Nasrat said. "The Iranian regime has developed a habit of persecuting Afghans."
"International human rights organizations must act against the Iranian government's violence and oppression it commits against Afghan refugees," he said.
"The more there is silence, the more the Iranian military will commit violence against Afghan refugees and violate their rights."
Brother, how do you react when they enter your house through the wall? Your country has a high level of security, recognize the Taliban.....stay and settle your land...just as we trust and believe in our leader and listen to His Majesty's orders...
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Iranians misuse the poverty of Afghan refugees and torture them, but no action was taken by the Afghan government or international organizations. Any injustice done to Afghans remains unanswered. If the Iranian government wants to deport the Afghan refugees, why they do not do this humanly? It is clear from this that Iranians are not human beings. Sincerely, Lima
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While the increasing migration of Afghans to Iran continues, Iranian authorities have intensified deportation of the Afghan immigrants. Parviz Qasimzadeh, the border commander of Iran's Zabul, said recently that in 24 hours, thousands of Afghan immigrants who came to Iran illegally were deported to Afghanistan through the "Melk" border. He said, "4,754 Afghan citizens who were arrested in different parts of the country for reasons such as illegal entry, illegal stay, or expired passports, were sent to Afghanistan through the "Melk" border crossing gate in the north of Sistan and Baluchistan." He praised the security forces of Iran, who are nothing more than criminals and looters, and who have tried to detain Afghan immigrants. Habibullah Elham, head of the department of Information and Culture of the Taliban administration in Nimroz province, said that every day 1,000 to 2,000 people are deported from Iran to Afghanistan. He says, "in fact, Iranians have pushed Afghan immigrants across the border, but the statistics are not clear. Every day, between one thousand and two thousand people return to Afghanistan from Iran, some of them cross the border and a number more return voluntarily." Afghans who have sought refuge in Iran due to the fear of Taliban, economic problems and unemployment, criticize the treatment and behavior of the military and security forces of this country, and they do not make these criticisms without reason, but they have seen all the trends and they see. T
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It is accepted that the issue of Afghan refugees is more dangerous than the host countries to Afghanistan itself. Those Afghan refugees in Iran who are in the interests of Iranians are not deported under any circumstances. Those refugees who threaten Iran, whether by force or choice, will be deported. In this sense, those Afghan refugees fighting to protect the interests of the Iranian regime in Syria and their families will remain in Iran. It should be noted that the families of the refugee fighters will stay in Iran until they protect the interests of Iran. After that, they were sent to Afghanistan in the same way as today: they sent the Afghans who were against the interests of Iran. Another type of Afghan refugees in Iran are those who protect Iran's interests in Afghanistan. They will be in the same situation as mentioned about others. The same story is with the Afghan refugees in Pakistan but with some changes. It is such that Afghan refugees living in Pakistan use Pakistan for several purposes. For example, Pakistan withdraws funds from the international aid organizations for these refugees, and then instead of spending it on the refugees, it will put it in its own pockets. Pakistan always uses Afghan refugees as a point of pressure against the Afghan government. Pakistan has been using Afghan refugees against the Afghan government for decades.
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I use my Salaam Times as a reliable news source. All of its news is authentic. The reader thinks he has gone to the field and sees and watches everything with his own eyes. Another thing is that as much as I have read the reports of Salaam Times, there is no one-sided thinking in them, i.e., they broadcast news according to the principles of journalism. It has practically raised the people's voices. Women now don't have advocates in Afghanistan, and no one can demand women's rights, yet Salaam Times provides accurate reports on women's labor and occupation, education, and other activities regularly. It subtly confronts the authorities that you are wrong... However, it has been a long time since the Salaam Times broadcasts very little, implying that it cannot cater to the readers' desire for news and information as it previously did. What is the problem, and why has it halted its media mission?
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Iranians are neither Muslims nor good neighbors. They have always mistreated Afghans. They take advantage of Afghans' poverty, which is not the work of Muslims. They should help Afghans and get them out of this difficult situation, but they force and harass Afghans as much as they can. May God make us free from the evil of the neighboring countries Iran and Pakistan.
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Iran misbehaves with Afghans. According to an Afghan refugee who told me, "We are stuck in the camp in Zahidan, we can't move now, there is no food, no water. There are roughly 500 of us here in this heat, including young people, seniors, and children. There is no one to help us. We say we want to go to Afghanistan. They say go, but how? There was no solution, no hotel, and now they told us we don't have a bus to go to Afghanistan. We are in a lot of trouble." These problems are not new, but the brutality and incompetence of Afghan leaders forced Afghans to leave their homeland years ago and become legal or illegal migrants in foreign countries. Illegal migration of Afghans to Iran, Pakistan, and other countries is not new. Still, this wave of migration increased after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan for the second time. Insecurity, poverty, and unemployment are the main reasons for the migration of Afghans, which has led them to face this difficult situation. I and many other people are facing various problems and worries in our country, but there is no way out. We are forced to continue living here despite mental problems and other things. Something that I would like to mention again. In recent months, the police in countries like Pakistan and Iran have misbehaved with Afghans. The Afghan refugees are crying, but not only the Taliban are silent about it; the international community also does not say anything in light of the immigration laws that they have made.
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Iranians and the oppressive government of Iran have been mistreating Afghans for the past few decades. I have witnessed many incidents that Iranians have done to Afghans. My son Sabaon went to Iran last year on an Iranian visa and wanted to work in this country or go to Turkey. He told me stories about the cruelty and oppression of the Iranian police and Iranians. They are not Muslims. They beat, tortured, imprisoned, stole, and extorted everyone and have done such things. Another of my nephews, Zerek Arin, went to Iran through smuggling routes a few months ago for labor. He said that, first of all, Iranian men do not give you work. When he realizes they are needy and work for very little money, he hires you. When two months have passed, you will not even know since you will be engaged in your job, and he will notify the police, who will arrive and take you away. You will lose your money and spend three to four months in prison with the police. Nowadays, they are agitated due to water. They arrest Afghans wherever they find them and throw them into prison.
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According to some people who went to Iran, now there in Iran that when an Afghan immigrant goes to Iran to get a visa for European countries like America, Canada, or another country, he will get it from the embassy of the target country. The smugglers will first take money from him at Sarai Shahzada in Kabul, and the passengers will go to Iran. When the traveler arrives in Iran, he goes to the company/office he is already in contact with. These companies/offices have already planned to kidnap these Afghan refugees. They take him from his office and torture him for a day and a night. The same thief leaves a message on WhatsApp of this passenger to a member of his family and tells him that I have arrived in the target country, such as Mexico, Brazil, Italy, or Turkey, on a photo-change passport or something else. You should give him the money. However, the passenger has not sent this message. Instead, the robbers of the same company have sent the message that the traveler's money will be lost. He will be tortured and return to his country (Afghanistan) with broken hands and legs. However, the luckiest person amongst them is the one who returns to his country. Otherwise, they have killed many of them. So, Iranians are evil and cheap people. They have no mercy.
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What you have mentioned in the report is correct. Many of my friends left their homes for Europe to support their families, but the attitude of the Iranians has brought them back to their homes in desperation and despair. According to the travelers, Iranians, ordinary people, and the police misbehave with Afghan refugees; they don't consider them human beings and do whatever they want with them. Beating, imprisoning, taking money from them... In short, Iranians treat them neither as Muslims nor as humans...
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The Afghan rulers have not done any kind of service for Afghans. It has been for many years as Afghans go to Iran for work and they are tortured there by the Iranian guards and also by the Iranian police. The previous governments of Afghanistan, which were recognized by all the countries of the world, worked only for their families, not for their poor nation. If the Afghan rulers have served their country, then why would Afghans go to Pakistan and Iran to work, and leave their country for a loaf of bread. If the rulers of Afghanistan considered this country as their homeland, and imagined that they would be buried here, and their children would live in this land, and this land is ours, they would have built this homeland. These rulers never thought about this and they never do. If they had thought that our descendants would live in this homeland, they would have built this homeland at that time. I have a homeland, but I am always thinking about when I will run away from this homeland. I am not thinking about the settlement of this homeland, you should settle your homeland for ourselves and for our future generation, so that we Afghans don't think that it is our homeland and this is our land, let's give hands to each other and we have to do this for our homeland and for our future generation. Let's not defend those who sold this homeland and soaked the people with blood. We should support whoever builds this homeland. Whenever the ruler of this country becomes a person who does
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It is a fact that the Shia Iran has been oppressing Afghans for years. Of course, Iran and Turkey treat Afghans much worse than Iran. Several religious people in Afghanistan raised slogans to support Turkish President Recep Tayyip a few years ago, but they did not know how Recep Tayyip's Turkey would treat Afghans. A few months ago, an Afghan youth said he and his friends wanted to go to Europe through Turkey. As they crossed the border of Iran to Turkey, they were captured by Turkish soldiers. He said they were arrested at 4 a.m., and Turkish soldiers beat them until 8 a.m. The boy said that he had blood in his urine because of beating. Pakistani police are also sons of bitch. They destroyed Afghanistan by using Afghans themselves. Now, they are oppressing Afghans in such a way that there is no limit. Of course, the main problem lies in our leaders. During the 20 years of the Republic, the international community, especially the United States, provided billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan. Still, our leaders and some foreign institutions stole that money, which had minimal benefit for the people and the country.
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