In just two weeks, since the conflict between Iran and Israel has stopped temporarily, more than five million Afghan citizens have returned to Afghanistan from Iran. The United Nations has described it as one of the largest forced population displays in recent years. The situation in the dusty border-city Islam Kala of western Afghanistan is very painful. Here the crowd of displaced is confined under the tents-small children who have not yet understood why their lives suddenly changed, and old men who keep looking at the sky silently with scorched faces in the sun. The heat here reaches 40 ° C (104 ° F), but the level of pain is much deeper than this.
The merciless combination of politics, mistrust and old tension is hidden behind this broad migration. Iran is describing it as a matter of national security, while critics are calling it a decishery against one of the weakest population in South Asia.
Beginning of expulsion
On June 24, a few days after the struggle ended, Tehran accelerated the process of exile on a large scale. As of July 9, the International Migration Organization (IOM) reported that 508,426 Afghan citizens have crossed the border and entered back in Afghanistan. In just one day 51,000 people were thrown out of Iran, which was the extreme before the last date of July 7 when all illegal migrants were ordered to leave the country. Iran was already indicating that he wanted to reduce the number of unknown Afghans here – these people often do hard work on low wages in cities like Tehran, Isfahan and Mashhad.But this time the forced withdrawal reached a terrible turn: without any concrete evidence it was claimed that Afghan citizens spied for Israel during a recent struggle.
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Spying allegations and public doubts
Although no strong evidence has been revealed so far, the Iranian state media showed a video of an alleged Afghan “detective” in which he claims that he informed a person in Germany about some places instead of $ 2,000. The identity and allegations of this person have not been confirmed, but it was enough to create an atmosphere of doubt and fear in the public, which the human rights groups are calling the collective punishment. The Iranian government has given clarification on this. On 1 July, the government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajrani said- “We always try to be a good host, but national security is our priority. Naturally, illegal citizens will have to return.”
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Human price
The human price of these exile is very heavy. According to CNN report, IOM’s Mission Head Mihung Park said that half of the Afghan citizens who have returned this year have returned after June 1 – more than 2.5 lakh people have crossed the border in the same week of July. This masses has put unbearable pressure on basic amenities like food, water, shelter and medicine in Afghan border areas, making this human crisis even more serious.