The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Afghanistan has reached an agreement with Iran over exchange of prisoners. Concern about thousands of Afghans on death row.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Afghanistan has reached an agreement with Iran over exchange of prisoners. Concern about thousands of Afghans on death row.
Janan Musazai, the spokesman of the ministry, made the announcement on April 26. The Iranian president recently approved the agreement, which was signed by the two ministries of justice, and approved by the Afghan president and national assembly in 2006.
Musazai said roughly half of the estimated 6,000 Afghan prisoners are on death row. The government has repeatedly asked Tehran to give an exact count of Afghan nationals sentenced to death in Iran.
Under the agreement prisoners can spend the rest of their imprisonment, which has to be longer than six months, in their own country should they or their family so wish to.
Many Afghans in prisons in Iran are accused in drug trafficking offences. However, prisoners and some members of parliament (MPs) have repeatedly complained that Afghans arrested in Iran are neither provided with able lawyers nor is their trial just.
Legal expert Jawad Sidiqi told Killid it is a prisoner’s right to be defended by a lawyer. “The situation is identical in Afghanistan for Iranian prisoners. They are deprived of legal assistance,” he added.
Justice denied?
Parliament has shown concern for the plight of Afghan prisoners by holding a special session following the execution of Afghan death row inmates last year. The bodies of 45 prisoners sentenced to death by hanging were handed over to Afghan authorities over two consecutive days.
Alam Gul Kochi, MP, said: “The action of the Iranian government is against the nation of Afghanistan as they have sent 45 bodies of young Afghans to Afghanistan within two nights.” He lambasted the Karzai government. “How come the government does not know what the case is?”
Gul Ahmad Amini, MP, described Iran’s behaviour as tyrannical. “This is tyranny that young Afghans are strangled in Iran and there is no one to ask what is the case/issue?”
Killid interviewed Afghan refugees from Iran who complained about the unjust and inhuman treatment meted out by Iranian authorities.
Film-maker Razi Muhibi who has lived as a refugee in Iran said he was once summoned by the Iranian police as a witness in a case. “We five Afghans and eight Lars (an Iranian tribe) went to police post as witnesses. After a long wait the head of the post called us and said, ‘Send your witnesses’. We said we are the witnesses. The police officer got very angry, and shouted at us, ‘We need the witness of four wise and adult people not witness of 8 Lars and an Afghan army’. I asked myself am I not a human?”
Out of bounds
Afghan refugees are often discriminated against in Iran. As a result of protests when Afghans were prohibited from entering a park on Nowroz in Isfahan province, the authorities imposed a ban on Afghans in Mazandaran province on Mar 20.
The Fars News Agency reported, “The law will be put in practice for all Afghans including single, married, legal and illegal Afghans, even for those who have passports.”
Jawed Najibi, 26, who has stayed five years in Iran, recalled, “There was no human behavior against us in any place in Iran. The Iranian government has encouraged this attitude. An incorrect image of Afghans is presented in the media. Many crimes are wrongfully reported as committed by Afghans.”
Assistant spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Faramerz Tamana, said the ministry was in touch with its counterparts in Tehran. “Any decision our neighbour country has taken should be basic on Islamic and humanitarian grounds.”
Unstoppable exodus
Afghans continue to cross the border into Iran illegally and legally because of continuing insecurity at home. The Iranian authorities have repeatedly announced that illegal Afghans will be deported, but hundreds of Afghans continue to cross the porous border.
On April 16, spokesman Janan Musazai told the media the process of “registration of Afghan refugees in Iran has already started and it is expected that some 18,000 families, roughly 90,000 individuals, would be issued Afghan passports by June 2012.” While refugee families can get passports from the Afghan embassy in Tehran, according to Musazai, under an agreement, all single Afghan refugees can return to Iran after getting a passport in Afghanistan.
Political observers believe that for Iran the Afghan refugee issue is a weapon to attack western powers that support the Karzai government.
The Fars news agency, quoting authorities, said Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are likely to sign an agreement on refugees. Fars quotes Samad Hami, the deputy in the ministry of foreign affairs, saying the agreement will allow “Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan to stay to 2017.” There has been no independent confirmation from the ministry.
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