Add Category
Afghan officials have launched a mission to retrieve bodies of migrants from a river in a western province after reports emerged that Iranian border guards tortured and threw Afghans into the river to prevent their entry into Iran.
Key points:
- Afghanistan alleges Iranian border guards beat migrants and forced them into a river
- A local hospital confirmed that at least four people had died due to drowning
- Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled home from Iran amid the coronavirus pandemic
A senior official from the presidential palace in Kabul said initial assessments suggested at least 70 Afghans who were trying to enter Iran from bordering Herat province were beaten and pushed into the Harirud River.
The Harirud River basin is shared by Afghanistan, Iran and Turkmenistan.
Doctors at Herat District Hospital said they had received the bodies of Afghan migrants, some of whom had drowned.
"So far, five bodies have been transferred to the hospital, of these bodies, its clear that four died due to drowning," Dr Aref Jalali, head of Herat District Hospital, said.
The Iranian consulate in Herat denied the allegations of torture and subsequent drowning of dozens of Afghan migrant workers by border police.
Iranian embassy officials in the Afghan capital of Kabul were not immediately available for a comment.
Noor Mohammad said he was one of 57 Afghan citizens who were caught by Iranian border guards on Saturday when they were trying to cross into Iran in search of work.
"After being tortured, the Iranian soldiers threw all of us in the Harirud river," Mr Mohammad told Reuters.
Shir Agha said at least 23 of the 57 people thrown by Iranian soldiers into the river were dead.
Local Afghan officials that it was not the first time that Afghans had been tortured and killed by Iranian police guarding the 920 kilometre-long border.
The incident could trigger a diplomatic crisis between Iran and Afghanistan at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has seen a mass exodus of Afghan migrants from Iran, with many testing positive for COVID-19 as that country continues to battle a large outbreak of the disease
Up to 2,000 Afghans daily cross the border from Iran, a global coronavirus hotspot, into Herat.
As of Sunday, at least 541 infected people are from Herat province, which recorded 13 deaths, with the majority of positive cases in the nation found among Afghans returning from Iran.
Reuters
