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SHEBERGHAN (SW) – Mesha Medawi is among many Afghan women who had embarked on the treacherous journey to Iran in a bid to realize her dreams of a safe future.
She and her family members endured all the hardships of this thorny journey, faced hunger, threats and abuses of the traffickers while hoping to reach the destination. She said due to large number of her family members, they could not afford to acquire passports for all, and hence embark on the illegal journey.
Mesha said the traffickers not only physically abused them, but also took away up to AFN 150,000 from them. Despite this, they were forced to walk for the whole day. .
The National Remediation Mechanism for Assistance to Victims of Trafficking in Persons and Trafficking in Migrants (NRM) has been devised to fight trafficking and help the victims. This mechanism calls for identification of the victims and traffickers in light of the guidelines by the government and civil society based on the Anti-Human-Trafficking Law 2017.
The National Remediation Mechanism for Assistance to Victims of Trafficking in Persons and Trafficking in Migrants (NRM) states: (Part of the Ministry of Interior’s tasks) ensuring measures to counter human trafficking and trafficking of refugees on all aerial and land routes (highways, parks, roads, streets, public and private schools).
Based on this article, the MoI is responsible to control all avenues of trafficking, and arrest the traffickers.
Mesha Mehdawai, a young girl in her family, went on to say that though the traffickers took plenty of money from them, but did not facilitated them, instead caused more troubles for them. She said the Iranian border guards forced one of her brothers to clean the green-belt.
After talking with Mesha, I went to the directorate of women affairs in Jawzjan to find out more.
Najiba Qureshi, head of the directorate of women affairs, and head of the commission against trafficking, shared with us the experiences about the victims facing physical and sexual abuses on the way to Iran. She sighed the repatriated women have so far not lodged official complaints with them. Najiba said only if such complaints are lodged, they can help the victims with the support of corresponding institutions.
Head of the secretariat for anti-human-trafficking in Jawzjan, Hassan Salimi, said in this regard that the trafficked person should not be forced to hard labor, physical abuse, to dance, or sold. He pronounced the ordeal of Mesha and her family as a classic example of trafficking of humans and trafficking of refugees.
The Article 8 about the duties of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation states that the government should organize for the repatriation of the trafficked citizens in collaboration with the ministry of foreign affairs and relevant international institutions. However, it seems that not much has been done in this regard, in fact the number of citizens embarking on the treacherous journey is on the rise.
Apart from a number of families, young people and even children are seen to be lured in to trafficking to neighboring countries for labor. Job guarantee for a trafficked refugees is not guaranteed. These Afghan workers are not given equal rights in neighboring countries, and since they have sneaked through illegal routes, they would remain vulnerable to all sorts of exploitations.
ENDS
