At least 70 Afghan migrants may have been abused and thrown into a river by the Iranian border guard, the Afghan foreign ministry said. According to eyewitnesses, at least 23 of them would not have survived.
The migrants were on their way to Iran from the Afghan border province of Herat when they were arrested by the Iranian border police. They were said to have been tortured and pushed into the Harirud River, the ministry said.
Afghan authorities are currently looking for bodies and any survivors along the river. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started an investigation into the incident. The Iranian Border Guard would have wanted to prevent the migrants from entering the country.
At the hospital in Herat, five bodies and two injuries have been reported, according to local doctors. An eyewitness says to news agency Reuters that the Border Guard shot migrants with shotguns and beat them with shovels. According to the eyewitness, 23 of them did not survive the violence.
Iran denies violence
About 2,000 Afghans cross the border into Iran every day in search of work. Afghan authorities say it is not the first time that migrants have been killed by the Iranian border police. The incident may lead to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
The Iranian Border Guard firmly denies any involvement: “None of these or related incidents have occurred on Iranian territory,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi.
The Afghan Taliban calls on Iran to investigate the violence and says that the perpetrators should be punished. According to the terrorist group, 57 Afghans have been abused by the Border Guard and 23 have died.
Many migrants are currently returning from Iran to Afghanistan because of the serious outbreak of the corona virus in Iran. Afghan authorities say that a good portion of the more than 500 infections in Herat are returnees. So far, thirteen people in the border province have been killed by the virus.
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