Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT News
Kabul: Amnesty International has reported that Afghan migrants who try to reach safe places through Iran and Turkey have repeatedly faced harsh treatment, including “illegal shooting” by the border forces of these two countries.
This report which titled “They don’t treat us like human beings” says that migrants, including women and children, have faced direct shooting while climbing the border wall or crawling under the fences “mostly on the Iranian border”.
The report states that Afghans who manage to enter these two countries are “regularly subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment before being illegally and forcibly returned to their country.”
Amnesty International researchers prepared this report based on interviews with 74 Afghan citizens in Herat and the border town of Islam Qala. Meanwhile, 48 refugees said that they were shot while crossing the border.
Following the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan a year ago, which was accompanied by chaos and the fall of the country’s government in the attack of the Taliban forces, many Afghan people are trying to leave this country at their own risk.
Mary Forestier, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Amnesty International, said: “We have collected documents showing how Iranian security forces have unlawfully killed dozens of Afghans since last August – by repeatedly shooting at cars full of passengers – or have injured. Turkish border guards illegally used war ammunition against Afghans and fired from the air and sometimes directly to repel the people.
He asked the authorities of Turkey and Iran to immediately stop trying to push back Afghan citizens and any kind of mistreatment of them and ensure their safe passage.
Amnesty International also called on the international community to support and provide financial assistance to countries that host large numbers of Afghan citizens, including Iran and Turkey.
According to this report, since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled their country.
