KUNDUZ (SW) – Human traffickers and traffickers of migrants are often seeking to exploit the most vulnerable looking for desperate ways to evade the difficult circumstances of their tough lives.
Naveed Ahmad (pseudonym) is one such helpless young man from Kunduz province. After losing his father to a road accident on the Kunduz – Baghlan highway four years ago, he was burdened with the heavy responsibility of taking care of the entire family of four people. For years, he struggled while selling goods on roadside, and relying on his uncle to send money for him from Iran.
Upon constant urging of his uncle, Naveed embarked on the treacherous journey to Iran along with his mother and three minor sisters after selling off their household goods.
At first, they came to Kabul to meet the human trafficker arranged for him by his uncle. They were promised a safe journey till Mashad, Iran. However, the trafficker handed them over to another trafficker who behaved rudely with them, separated males and females, but no one could speak out of fear. “We were one small family, our difficulties were limited, but other families faced serious challenges on the way to Iran. The females were taken away in different vehicles, and they were persecuted”.
Naveed tirelessly worked at a garden where his uncle got him a job, and his mother also worked in the neighborhood. However, all of their earnings were taken by his uncle, leaving nothing for them. “There were minor boys, younger than me, and the garden owner would exploit them, and when I shared this matter with my mother, she told my uncle, but he resorted to violence, and beat my mother”.
After a year of stay in Iran, police captured him, took him to prison, and forced him to clean toilets there. One month later, he was deported via Nimroz to Afghanistan without informing his mother and sisters in Iran.
“The garden owner had a room where he would encourage the young boys to smoke weed, and those who resisted, they were handed over to police, persecuted and harassed for being Afghan”, he said.
These days Naveed is desperately striving to gather some money to liberate his family from the clutches of his uncle in Iran.
The National Referral Mechasnim Mechanism (NRM) is a mechanism which is developed by the Afghan government’s High Commission to combat trafficking and smuggling. The purpose of this mechanism is to help government and NGOs to identify, refer, assist, and protect the VoTs and prosecute traffickers in a coordinated manner as outlined in the Afghanistan TiP Law 2017.
Based on the NRM (responsibilities of the Ministry of Information and Culture) the public and private media should identify victims of human trafficking, and highlight the risks associated. “[The Ministry of Information and Culture is bound to] cooperate with corresponding institutions and ministries for the production of TV and radio content aimed at highlighting the impacts and reasons of human trafficking”.
There are good chances of young men such as Naveed evading such an ordeal if proper information and training about the consequences of trafficking of humans and trafficking of migrants is provided through the MoIC, public and private media.
Bismillah Waziri, head of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission in Kunduz, said in this regard that what Naveed has went through is the classic example of trafficking of humans and trafficking of migrants. He said this clearly amounts to grim crime in domestic and international laws. “When he is transported to Iran on different pretexts, his documents confiscated there, and forced to hard-labor without any pay, which is one of the reasons for trafficking, all of this is amount to direct exploitation”.
According to Mohammad Esa Sahel, director statistics at the directorate of refugees and repatriation, there are no confirmed statistics available about the number of youngsters migrating to Iran from here on annual basis. However, up to 952 families have been deported from Iran to Kunduz province alone in the year 2018.
ENDS
