On Tuesday night, at least 73 Afghan deportees from Iran including 17 children were killed in a bizarre traffic accident that took place in the western Herat province of Afghanistan. A bus which had just arrived in the country with migrants who had returned earlier in the week to Iran crashed with a truck and motorcycle before bursting into flames, authorities confirmed. According to Herat Taliban director of information and culture, Ahmadullah Mottaqi, all the passengers of the bus were killed, in addition to two passengers of other vehicles.
The passengers were boarded in Islam Qala at the Afghanistan-Iran border, a provincial spokesman, Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told ABC News. Police called excess speed and negligence of the bus driver the main reason. The accident highlights the dangers of under maintained roads in Afghanistan where road safety is not enforced strongly.
Iran has intensified the deportation of undocumented Afghan migrants over the past few months; most migrants have escaped years of war in their country. After Iran gave a deadline in July to voluntary deportation, several hundreds of thousands were forcefully deported under national security fears, further piling pressure on the already stretched resources in Afghanistan.
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Experts caution that the influx of such heavy Afghan deportees in Iran is overwhelming a country with scanty assistance and infrastructure and especially so under the Taliban regime. Humanitarian agencies emphasize the need to mobilize immediate assistance to the returning families, most of whom are confronted with inadequate shelter and services.
This tragedy condemns not only mass deportations as a humanitarian problem but also the still unsafe nature of the roadways in Afghanistan where Afghan deportees sent back to Iran are under constant threat.
