KABUL (SW): Many Afghan children are deported back from Iran each year and sent to the border city of Islam Qala. According to reports, the sale and purchase of children, forced labor, ill-treatment, torture and sexual assault of Afghan asylum seekers have been a routine in Iran.
Ahmad Shah, a 15-year old boy from Kunduz has been recently deported from Iran and sent to Islam Qala in Herat along with several other children.
Getting away from poverty and unemployment and the effort to reach a better place had forced Ahmad Shah to find 6000 AFN and leave for Iran.
Eventually, Ahmad Shah with other 37 immigrant children travelled to Iran after 37 days of walking along difficult routes and have been bought and sold to different human traffickers on this journey, Ahmad Shah said.
Ahmad Shah said when they arrived at one of the border towns in Iran, the human traffickers took them in a place which they all had no idea where that place was. Ahmad Shah added that they tortured us and were forcing us to call our families to send money to human traffickers, or else they said they will take out our teeth and nails and throw acid on our faces. Ahmad Shah recalled that they were kept without food for three days.
Ahmad Shah said the bitter stories of rape of asylum seekers on this journey. Ahmad Shah, after reaching his destination had been working on Iran’s fruit import field from dawn to dust for only 40,000 Iranian money.
After working for 8 months, Ahmad Shah had been arrested and imprisoned by the Iranian police without allowing him to receive his other half salary.
Ahmad Shah said the police didn’t allow him to collect his clothes and shoes. He recalled that he was wearing a slipper in the winter on the snowy camp where the Afghan immigrants were held by the police. He added that due to harsh cold weather, most of the people including women were crying but the police never cared about anyone.
Ahmad Shah is not the only person who has experienced the unfortunate journey. Each year, dozens of Afghan children are smuggled to Iran and they all have faced such tragic fate.
Safiullah, a 16-year old boy had been deported from Iran several weeks ago and had been sent to Islam Qala in Herat. His employer has not paid his eight-month salary which was approximately 8 million Toman (Iranian money), and eventually handed him over to the border police.
Safiullah also said that the Iranian police have tortured him and forced him to clean toilets while he spent time in the camp where police held the Afghan immigrants.
He recalled that the food which was given to the Afghan immigrants in the camp was not eatable.
Given the tragic consequences of child trafficking, Afghanistan’s law in paragraph 2 Article 511 of the Criminal Code stated that “whenever the victim is a child or a woman, or have been exploited by forcing them to dance, the perpetrators will be sentenced to 10 years in prison”.
Ghulam Rasool Omari, UNICEF’s director of Labor and Social Affairs said that they have interviewed many children at the Iranian border with Afghanistan, and according to the UNICEF’s report many of these children were the residents of the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
Omari added that some of these children have been raped on their journeys and some of these children have even been sent to Syria as well to participate in war.
Omari also informed that they had interviewed a child who had been taken to Pakistan and with the injection to influence the kids, the armed groups had tried to turn the kid into a suicide bomber, however, when the boy realized that, he had escaped from them and came back to Afghanistan.
Javid Nadim, director of refugees and returnees in Herat said that over the past six months, nearly 3,500 children have been deported from Iran. According to Nadim, some of the families of these children are still living in Iran.
According to Nadim, 37,110 individuals and 380 families had been deported from Iran in 2017 including children and 41 women without any family members, and 396 sick people, 99 drug addicts, 42 disabled, and 102 senior citizens are among them.
Abdul Qadir Rahimi, regional director of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Herat said that the smuggling of children has been systematically and regularly done by the human traffickers. According to Rahimi, the Afghan and Iranian smugglers, as well as the employers in Iran, have all been working together.
According to Rahimi, smugglers had taken 30 children to work on a farm in Iran, and after 6 months not only that they have not been paid salary but with the help of the police have been deported them back to Afghanistan.
However, the local administration in Herat said that based on a memorandum of understanding between Iran, Afghanistan and the United Nations, all the immigrant affairs will be managed in coordination between all these three parties.
Jilani Farhad, the spokesperson for the governor of Herat said the extension of the residence permit to Afghan refugees in Iran, deportation, and repatriation of them will be decided jointly by all the parties.
According to Farhad, if there is a violation, it will be reported to the capital.
Iranian Consulate in Herat also said that people without legal documents and passports will not be allowed to live in Iran and will be deported back to Afghanistan.
Although the criminalization of human trafficking is a positive step in protecting children, the lack of implementing forces and the pursued smuggling of children have exploited the children of Afghanistan in recent years.
ENDS
