At the corner of the roadside market, Mujibur Rahman was cooking fries for his customers when he got nervous watching me approach him with a recorder for interview.
I brought his cousin with myself just to make him feel comfortable for the interview about the bitter experience. Hearing the name of Iran, he was totally shocked as if he had heard name one of his worst enemies. Finally, he accepted the request for interview.
Cold sweat was on his forehead and with his hands he dried it up. He sat at a corner of the shope and started telling about his trip to Iran. Mujib had been working as a labor for many years, but according to himself, the result of years of sweating and labor has only been humiliations and insults.
He is from Kunar and many years ago he was on his way to Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to find a better job. Later, in Queeta city a human smuggler took him to Iran. But, all these things just did not happen all at once. On the way, smugglers not only did not give him food but beat him so hard.
Anyway, with thousands of hardships, he reached Tehran. But, there he faced some other types of problems. For example, the owner of the work deceived him and always delayed his salary. Instead, he was being harassed so much that he eventually gave up on his rights and was forced to leave work. "I was working as guard for about eight years, but they didn’t give me my salary instead they were insulting and humiliating me every time they get the opportunity to do which was so painful"
Mujib, in a shaky voice, said that both the police and Iranian citizens were beating him without any reason. Mujib said the memory won’t be forgotten until the day he dies.
Deception is part of human trafficking, and Mujib experiened all of such things at Iran.
Right now, he lives in Kunar and is working in a small shop. But, he says that the effects of the unfortunate events in Iran have changed him from a normal person to a psychotic disorder. "If anyone does not ask me from Iran, I have no problem, but if anyone wants me to define my memories of Iran, my mind will be disturbed because I went through very hard time there" He was kicked out of Iran three years ago. During his stay in Iran, he became addicted to drugs too.
Mujib’s relatives consider his health condition worrying, but they are still pleased that they have not lost him.
Javed, cousin of Majib, said: "life has difficulties but it has been very difficult to deal with such situation, but we are still happy that he is with us now and we haven’t lost him.
Mohammad Torab, the secretary of the Combating Human Trafficking Commission in the Kunar Judiciary, said cases like the Mujibur Rahman’s show that the commission should work with the governmental and non-governmental organizations on human trafficking and inform the citizens.
"For those involved in human trafficking cases, according to Article 10 of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law, a medium and long-term imprisonment is considered"
Mr. Torab, referring to the case of Mujib Ul Rahman, says that many migrants have been taken to Iran and Pakistan by smugglers, and most of them have a very fatal fate.
In the third paragraph of Article 26 of the fifth chapter of the Anti-Trafficking law it says, "All the relevant authorities are required to use all the possible facilities available to raise awareness about the dangers of trafficking in human beings and the trafficking of immigrants to people."
Shafiqullah Mohmand, head of the Immigrants and Returns of Kunar Province, also said to Salam Watandar, that since the return of immigrants, there has been no case filed on human trafficking because most returning immigrants no longer want to talk to anyone about their experiences. “Afghans who are living in Iran are facing really tough time”
Mr. Mohmand adds that they are trying to help Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in Iran and Pakistan with cooperation of these two countries to make their life easier there.
Recently, the international community has held various conferences and meetings with the Government of Afghanistan and other domestic institutions to combat the phenomenon of human trafficking.
The goal of this series of meetings and discussions is to find effective ways to fight human trafficking.
ENDS
