Akhtar Makoii
The Telegraph
Iranian border guards have reportedly killed dozens of Afghans in a massacre as they attempted to enter the country.
The Islamic Republic’s border forces ambushed and opened fire on a group of about 300 migrants trying to reach Iran on Sunday night, multiple sources have reported.
“Dozens of Afghan nationals at the Saravan border were targeted,” said the Haalvsh human rights news agency, which monitors rights violations in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan region.
Border guards directly fired bullets and rockets at migrants, according to Haalvsh.
The alleged massacre follows a crackdown by the Iranian regime on migrants fleeing the Taliban.
The Islamic Republic has said it hopes to achieve two million deportations by March next year.
Survivors of the shooting reported out of the 300 Afghan migrants present, only about 60 to 70 were unhurt.
The rest were either killed or seriously injured.
The Telegraph cannot independently confirm the exact number of casualties. The shooting happened in a remote region with no internet access.
“We were at the Kalagan border when they ambushed us,” one survivor said. “We were around 300 people, maybe 50 or 60 people survived unscathed, everyone else was either martyred or injured. Twelve of my friends were also killed.”
Videos purportedly showing the aftermath of the massacre show a harrowing scene at the border.
The Telegraph has chosen not to publish the videos, which show the bodies of a number of migrants lying motionless in the desert and their clothes stained with blood.
One video, shot at night, shows a man desperately attempting to stem blood flowing from a severely wounded companion.
With only a scarf at his disposal, he wraps it around the victim’s legs but the fabric quickly becomes saturated with the amount of blood pouring from the wounds.
“He is my cousin and he was shot four times,” a man’s voice could be heard saying. “It happened when we were crossing into Iran.”
In another clip, a bloodied and injured man with signs of gunshots on his body reaches for water. He appears to be parched from the desert heat and trauma.
His companions, however, urgently caution him against drinking. “Don’t drink water,” they warn. “It will deteriorate your condition.”
Several wounded migrants were transferred to a clinic in a nearby Pakistani town. However, before the local police could arrive to document the necessary legal paperwork, the injured migrants left the centre.
A smuggler in Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, where the migrants began their journey, confirmed the shooting to The Telegraph.
The man said he had lost contact with several of the migrants he sent to the border.
“I don’t know whether they’re dead or alive,” he said. “They’re all desperate, poor people just trying to reach Iran, find work and send money back to their starving families.
“It doesn’t get worse than killing someone who is just trying to enter your country to work and help their family survive. Who knows what will happen to their families now.”
‘Crime against humanity’
However, the Islamic Republic’s special representative for Afghanistan denied the shooting.
“As of now, it has been confirmed that reports of dozens of illegal migrants dying at the Saravan border are false,” Hassan Kazemi Ghomi claimed.
“A legal response to the illegal entry of unauthorised migrants is a legitimate right of countries, and border forces are obligated to prevent the entry of illegal nationals,” he added.
He said the Islamic Republic “is determined to return unauthorised refugees and to take legal action against their illegal entry at all border points”.
Reports of the shooting have sparked outrage inside and outside Afghanistan with a former attorney general describing it as a “crime against humanity”.
“The brutal Iranian regime took out its frustrations with Israel on innocent Afghans,” one Taliban official said. “Our neighbours are far more savage and cruel than Israel.”
According to the UN, about 4.5 million Afghans live in Iran, with many having fled the country since the government takeover of the Taliban in 2021.
To prevent more migrants entering the country, Tehran is also building a 13ft-tall wall along a stretch of the 900km-long border with Afghanistan.
Afghans in Iran face severe restrictions after the Islamic Republic launched a crackdown aimed at deporting two million by March next year.
They are banned from buying groceries, renting homes and visiting certain areas.
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