A record number of Afghans crossed legally into Iran in September-October this year – the start of a long and perilous illegal journey to Europe.
Immigration officials at Islam Qala port say 8,798 Afghans travelled across the border with visas between Sep 23 and Oct 22.
Wali Mohammad Niazai, the border police commissioner at Islam Qala says 27,690 Afghans have left the country over the last seven months. Every day, Iranian authorities deport between 350 and 1,000 Afghans for not having valid papers.
The justice department in Herat province has reported a 50 percent increase in the number of applicants seeking to process documents required for travel abroad. More than half of these are hoping to migrate with their families. Most of them are educated people, according to Ghulam Mohammad Rahmani, the head of the provincial justice department.
Authorities in the passport department also say they receive one thousand applications for passports daily. Khuja Mohammad Akbar Sidiqi, the chief passport officer, says the applications are processed and forwarded to Kabul, where the passports are issued. Toorialai Taheri, the deputy in the Herat provincial council, says the failure to provide jobs in Afghanistan is fuelling the exodus. “There has always been migration but as the security and economic situation has changed, even our educated people have chosen the migration route. The fall of Kunduz – it was never imagined – has intensified the trend,” he observes.
Iranian diplomats at the consulate in Herat say that some 15,000 visas are issued every month. Mahmud Afkhami Rashidi, consul head, says the numbers have never been higher. There is a flood of Afghan migrants making the dangerous journey onwards to other countries.
According to the Herat refugees department, the bodies of some 60 Afghans who had planned to go to Europe were handed over to their relatives through the border checkpoints in Herat, Farah and Nimroz. Recently, the bodies of eight Heratis, members of two families, who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea were brought to Herat. Abdul Razaq Kazemi, a relative of one family, says the bodies were of three children, three women and two men. He claims that human smugglers had promised his relatives that they would make the sea crossing in a motorboat. “Though the smuggler got huge amounts of money, he loaded some 230 migrants in the boat, much beyond its capacity, and so it sank at sea, drowning 30 migrants,” he told Killid. The families had lived in Mashaad, Iran.
Farah route
Fareed Bakhtawar, the head of the Farah Provincial council, says families also travel illegally to Iran. He says that Iranian security forces on the border killed some 25 people from the province while they were trying to illegally enter Iran. The head of Farah provincial council says that most Afghans go to Iran via the area called Pashmaki of Lash Joyand district in Farah province.
Mohammad Sadiq Chakhansuri, the head of the provincial council of Nimroz says that 80 percent of illegal migrants enter Iran through Nimroz.
According to Chakhansuri, human smugglers have links with the mafia in Iran and Turkey. The bodies of some 25 Afghans who were enroute to Turkey from Iran were sent to Nimroz.
This Killid reporter while researching for the story in the Darb Malek area of Herat met a young man who was planning to migrate to Europe and sought his help to find a smuggler who would arrange the journey. “I will find a smuggler,” the young man promised.
Eventually he came up with a phone number of a “smuggler” who introduced himself as Hashmatullah over the phone. The latter told him it would be easy to arrange the travel, but first he would have to make the payment. “We can take you to any country that you want. We have people on all routes. Taking one person via land from Herat to Germany or Austria would cost 10,000-15,000 USD,” he said. He explained that there would be more walking involved if the amount paid was low. “More the money, there would be more facilities,” he said. Iran would be the port of entry, the smuggler added.
Not official
Afghan border police claim they have special security arrangements in place in ports like Islam Qala and Torghundi to stop the human smugglers. General Mohammad Juma Adeel, the commander of 705 border zone in the west, says no Afghan citizen can cross the border without legal documents.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Herat’s refugees and returnees department says some 1,000-2,000 Afghans are being deported daily by Iran via Islam Qala port of Herat. Half of those deported were arrested by Iranian security forces from the country’s border with Turkey. Hamidullh Khatibi, the head of the returnees department, says most of the deported are those that had planned to go to Europe. Among them are schoolchildren, university students and women.
Rashidi, the Iranian consul-general in Herat, says that if anyone can prove they were deported illegally, the decision would be revoked.
Follow TKG on Twitter & Facebook
