The Afghan government has announced that it has opened an investigation after being informed that migrants trying to enter Iran had been turned back by border guards and had drowned crossing a river. Local media reports said the tragedy came on Friday after dozens of Afghans from Herat province in western Afghanistan illegally crossed the Iranian border.
The Afghan Human Rights Commission said on Sunday it spoke with survivors who accused Iranian forces of hitting and torturing them. " They had to cross the Harirud river, some of them drowned and some survived, " the Commission said in a statement.
Disclaimer from the Iranian Consulate
The government announced on Saturday that the foreign ministry has launched an investigation. A government official speaking on condition of anonymity said seven migrants were dead and 30 others missing, according to survivors who returned to Herat.
The Iranian consulate in Herat denied the information and said that no Afghan national had been arrested in the region.
Between 1.5 and three million Afghan refugees live and work in Iran. Tens of thousands have returned to Afghanistan since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but as restrictions have been relaxed in Iran, many are trying to return.
