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Afghan refugees caught between Iran and
a hard place
HERAT - Abdullah was left catatonic and almost mute by the electric
shocks meted out to him by Iranian police before they bussed him to the
border and sent him back to Afghanistan.
His arms marked with slashes of red paint to identify him as a deportee,
the 18-year-old lies on a bed of cushions in an otherwise bare hut that has
become his temporary home, uttering only his name and that of his home
province Tahir.
“He was deported from Iran, we don’t know what’s wrong. Sometimes he
speaks,” says one UN worker tasked with giving him board until aid workers
can find his family to send him home. “We have a lot of cases like this.”
Up to three million Afghan refugees settled in Iran during the Soviet
occupation in the 1980s, making Tehran responsible for one of the largest
refugee populations in the world.
At first Afghans were permitted to live in their neighbouring country with
ease, with women in particular enjoying a higher social status as well as
better education, work opportunities and security.
But since the 1990s Tehran has clamped down on the refugees, tightening
rules that allow Afghans to pursue education and work, and in 2007
launching a massive deportation programme that sent home up to half a
million.
Some say that the size of the exodus was politically orchestrated — used
as a tool to exert pressure on the Western-backed government in Kabul to
take a more anti-Western stance.
“Whenever Afghanistan’s policies displease Tehran, the Iranian government
threatens to expel all Afghans living in Iran,” wrote Ahmad Majidyar and Ali
Alfoneh in a 2010 report on the issue for American Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research, a right-wing US think tank.
“Tehran understands that the fragile Afghan government lacks the
capacity to absorb a large number of returnees under current security and
economic conditions.”
One million Afghan refugees now officially live in Iran, with estimates of up
to another one million living there illegally, more than 10 years after US
troops invaded Afghanistan and brought down the Taliban regime.
According to figures compiled by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), a total
of 18,152 Afghan refugees returned from Iran in 2011, well over double the
number in the previous year.
Iran recently lent its approval, along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, to a
new UN strategy designed to help Afghans who return, trying to focus on
more sustainable reintegration to stop them becoming destitute.
But in western Afghanistan, tales of mistreatment of Afghan refugees by
Iranian authorities abound — as do reports of deportees being forced to
pay bribes to escape an apparently brutally run detention centre across
the border.
Hamidullah Hatibi, who runs the provincial refugee agency in Herat, says
that last year one man beaten by Iranian authorities succumbed to his
wounds once he had crossed the border, while another had a mental
breakdown.
“Broken hands, arms, beaten bodies — there are a lot. The Iranian
government treats the refugees badly and these people cannot go back,”
he said, adding that the government relies on UN aid to help the refugees
return home.
Several calls to the Iranian embassy in Kabul for comment went
unanswered.
The ebb and flow of Afghans across their western border in search of work
and an escape from their restive homeland continues — the refugees
caught between an expensive and insecure life in Iran, or continued war at
home.
Many are deported, but the majority are forced to return by increased
economic hardship and restricted living conditions in Iran.
Refugees, often in families with six or seven children, must pay annual
school fees of up to $75 per child, despite earning a subsistence wage of
$10 per day.
“It pays for just one chicken,” said father-of-five Yusuf Zeyiey, 48, who
decided to return to Afghanistan after nine years living in Iran.
He cannot go to his home province of Jowzjan where there is no work and
the threat of the Taliban insurgency — instead he will go to northern Mazar
city and try to pick up construction work that pays $20 per day.
“It was just too expensive. We had problems with rent, food, school. All
these problems caused us to come back,” he said.
Stringent economic conditions are only likely to get worse for refugees
living in Iran as the US and EU tighten sanctions to try to force Tehran to
abandon its nuclear programme.
And Afghanistan’s western lands have long-been considered an extension
of Iranian territory by the authoritarian neighbouring regime.
But despite the difficulties, there is still high demand for a permit to live
and work in Iran: lines snake outside the Iranian consulate in Herat and
crowds jostle for passports outside the provincial refugee ministry.
Some say they seek refuge from war — others claim there are no jobs to
be found in Afghanistan. All of those waiting outside the ministry earlier
this month claimed they were being forced to pay officials bribes for a
passport.
“They just sell them to whoever gives them money,” said 19-year-old
Abdullah Mohammadhi who said a typical bribe was $10-12.
a hard place
HERAT - Abdullah was left catatonic and almost mute by the electric
shocks meted out to him by Iranian police before they bussed him to the
border and sent him back to Afghanistan.
His arms marked with slashes of red paint to identify him as a deportee,
the 18-year-old lies on a bed of cushions in an otherwise bare hut that has
become his temporary home, uttering only his name and that of his home
province Tahir.
“He was deported from Iran, we don’t know what’s wrong. Sometimes he
speaks,” says one UN worker tasked with giving him board until aid workers
can find his family to send him home. “We have a lot of cases like this.”
Up to three million Afghan refugees settled in Iran during the Soviet
occupation in the 1980s, making Tehran responsible for one of the largest
refugee populations in the world.
At first Afghans were permitted to live in their neighbouring country with
ease, with women in particular enjoying a higher social status as well as
better education, work opportunities and security.
But since the 1990s Tehran has clamped down on the refugees, tightening
rules that allow Afghans to pursue education and work, and in 2007
launching a massive deportation programme that sent home up to half a
million.
Some say that the size of the exodus was politically orchestrated — used
as a tool to exert pressure on the Western-backed government in Kabul to
take a more anti-Western stance.
“Whenever Afghanistan’s policies displease Tehran, the Iranian government
threatens to expel all Afghans living in Iran,” wrote Ahmad Majidyar and Ali
Alfoneh in a 2010 report on the issue for American Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research, a right-wing US think tank.
“Tehran understands that the fragile Afghan government lacks the
capacity to absorb a large number of returnees under current security and
economic conditions.”
One million Afghan refugees now officially live in Iran, with estimates of up
to another one million living there illegally, more than 10 years after US
troops invaded Afghanistan and brought down the Taliban regime.
According to figures compiled by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), a total
of 18,152 Afghan refugees returned from Iran in 2011, well over double the
number in the previous year.
Iran recently lent its approval, along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, to a
new UN strategy designed to help Afghans who return, trying to focus on
more sustainable reintegration to stop them becoming destitute.
But in western Afghanistan, tales of mistreatment of Afghan refugees by
Iranian authorities abound — as do reports of deportees being forced to
pay bribes to escape an apparently brutally run detention centre across
the border.
Hamidullah Hatibi, who runs the provincial refugee agency in Herat, says
that last year one man beaten by Iranian authorities succumbed to his
wounds once he had crossed the border, while another had a mental
breakdown.
“Broken hands, arms, beaten bodies — there are a lot. The Iranian
government treats the refugees badly and these people cannot go back,”
he said, adding that the government relies on UN aid to help the refugees
return home.
Several calls to the Iranian embassy in Kabul for comment went
unanswered.
The ebb and flow of Afghans across their western border in search of work
and an escape from their restive homeland continues — the refugees
caught between an expensive and insecure life in Iran, or continued war at
home.
Many are deported, but the majority are forced to return by increased
economic hardship and restricted living conditions in Iran.
Refugees, often in families with six or seven children, must pay annual
school fees of up to $75 per child, despite earning a subsistence wage of
$10 per day.
“It pays for just one chicken,” said father-of-five Yusuf Zeyiey, 48, who
decided to return to Afghanistan after nine years living in Iran.
He cannot go to his home province of Jowzjan where there is no work and
the threat of the Taliban insurgency — instead he will go to northern Mazar
city and try to pick up construction work that pays $20 per day.
“It was just too expensive. We had problems with rent, food, school. All
these problems caused us to come back,” he said.
Stringent economic conditions are only likely to get worse for refugees
living in Iran as the US and EU tighten sanctions to try to force Tehran to
abandon its nuclear programme.
And Afghanistan’s western lands have long-been considered an extension
of Iranian territory by the authoritarian neighbouring regime.
But despite the difficulties, there is still high demand for a permit to live
and work in Iran: lines snake outside the Iranian consulate in Herat and
crowds jostle for passports outside the provincial refugee ministry.
Some say they seek refuge from war — others claim there are no jobs to
be found in Afghanistan. All of those waiting outside the ministry earlier
this month claimed they were being forced to pay officials bribes for a
passport.
“They just sell them to whoever gives them money,” said 19-year-old
Abdullah Mohammadhi who said a typical bribe was $10-12.
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