Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier.
“He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village.
“We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son.
Photo: AFP
Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died last month while trying to cross illegally into Iran from Afghanistan’s Herat Province, according to officials, when temperatures were about minus-3°C.
With earthquakes and drought compounding a daily struggle to survive in Afghanistan, about half the population would need humanitarian assistance this year, the UN says.
“There was no other way left for me. I thought, let him go to make our life better,” said Mah Jan, 50, who requested the family’s surname not be published for privacy reasons.
Habibullah’s stepbrother, Gul Ahmad, said the teenager had tried shoe polishing, but only earned up to 15 afghanis (US$0.23) per day.
“He was ready to be a shepherd for 2,000 afghanis, to work in a shop, but he found nothing. So he was forced to leave. He told his mother: ‘Let’s trust in God, I’m going to Iran,’” said Gul Ahmad, 56.
Habibullah was among 15 bodies returned from Iran, an Afghan border source said on condition of anonymity.
A further three migrants who died were recovered on the Afghan side of the frontier, an army official said.
Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghan migrants “who were at risk of perishing due to the weather” were rescued in the mountains, Iranian Border Guard Commander Majid Shoja was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.
They are drawn to Iran due to greater job opportunities and a common language, but legal routes are limited.
Afghan Deputy Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Abdul Manan Omari on Sunday said that it was “necessary to do more” to facilitate work permits for migrants.
Iran and Pakistan have combined sent back 5 million Afghans since September 2023, increasing the nation’s population by 10 percent, the International Organization for Migration said.
The agency’s deputy head in Afghanistan, Mutya Izora Maskun, said that many in the nation say that “the economy, job insecurity, food insecurity, constrained access to services” force them to leave.
They do so even if that means going through “illegal crossing points that are very dangerous due to the cold and the risks of human trafficking,” she said.
The Taliban government has taken “serious steps to fight the smugglers,” Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said.
However, the attempts to reach Iran have not stopped.
In the last week of last month, “347 people who were trying to illegally cross the border into Iran were identified and arrested,” a military unit in western Afghanistan said in a statement on Saturday.
Abdul Majeed Haidari, whose one-year-old son suffers from a heart problem, tried his luck in the middle of last month.
Working at a brick oven, the 25-year-old could no longer afford to pay for his son’s medication and family expenses.
“We left because we were so destitute,” said his stepbrother, Yunus, who accompanied him.
“We set out in the rain. In such weather, the radars and cameras of the border guards do not work properly, but the smuggler got lost,” he said.
They failed to light a fire for warmth and, as snow fell, Yunus recounted his stepbrother’s words: “I can’t walk anymore.”
“Some told us to leave him so as not to endanger the other 19 people in the group,” said Yunus, who requested his full name not be used.
After carrying him for two more hours, “his eyes stopped closing, his body grew heavier,” Yunus said, before an Iranian family drove past and took them to hospital.
“They gave him electric shocks, but they said he was already dead,” said Yunus, who has since returned to his village.
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PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
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