Refugees of Afghanistan are being forgotten

Thousands of Afghans are being forcibly sent back to their homeland to face a bleak future

Afghan deportees from Iran register themselves with the Afghan Department of Refugees and Returnees near the western border of Afghanistan. Photo by Hikmat Noori / The National

More than 70 million people around the world have been either internally displaced or forced to seek refuge in another country, a number higher than at any point in time since the Second World War. After Syrians fleeing a relentless war, Afghans make up the second largest refugee population, with 2.6 million registered refugees worldwide and another two million internally displaced people. Yet their woes are often forgotten as a never-ending stream of headlines featuring conflict and tragedy stretching back 40 years  has led to the international community becoming inured to the suffering of Afghanistan’s people.

From the end of the 1970s and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, millions of Afghans have had to flee violence and destruction in their homeland, so much so that by the 1980s, nearly one-third of all Afghans had become refugees in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. From the terror of life under the Taliban to the 2001 war and the ensuing violence, Afghanistan has witnessed the forced displacement of a large number of the population, which continues to this day. The crisis has earned Afghanistan the dubious moniker of being least peaceful country in the world, according to the Institute for Peace and Economics.

Despite this bleak reality, many Afghans seeking refuge are now being forcibly returned to their war-torn homeland from Iran, Pakistan and Europe while others are subjected to inhumane treatment in Australia’s remote island-based detention camps. The fact Afghans would consider taking their chances amid the volatility and insecurity of Pakistan or under the authoritarian regime of Iran rather than risk staying put speaks volumes about their circumstances in their homeland, with a lack of opportunities, economic security, safety or a reprieve from years of hardship. As revealed in The National, thousands of Afghans - mostly young men and children - are currently being deported from Iran. In just one week this month, more than 5,000 of Iran’s two million undocumented Afghans were deported, with nearly two in five of them unaccompanied minors forced back to a war-ravaged nation.

This year alone, a quarter of a million Afghans have been forced to go back home from Iran after being arrested, often in incidents marked by brutality and harsh treatment. One teenage boy told The National he had been arrested with his brother in the middle of the night and allowed to pack only a small plastic bag with whatever belongings they could grab before they were taken away. Many of the deportees were children and young men who fled violence, sky-high unemployment and poverty in their country, and were only struggling to eke out a living. Young men and boys are often the sole breadwinners in Afghan families.

They are left with little choice but to seek opportunities abroad to support their relatives, often working illegally, but many of those surviving in Iran said they had been exploited by greedy employers who promised to pay them but instead alerted the police to their whereabouts when payday arrived, leaving them unable to claim months of unpaid wages. Those who are returned to Afghanistan face bleak prospects. Some of those deported from Iran are from the Shiite minority, a Muslim sect that Tehran claims to want to protect and represent, yet are returned to face bleak futures in Taliban-held areas.

Host countries have a responsibility towards those seeking refuge on their soil, especially as Iran and Western countries have signed up to a Geneva Refugee Convention that guarantees refugees basic rights. For instance, article 33 stipulates that no state can expel or return a refugee to a homeland where their lives or freedom are at risk. The very least Tehran and other nations can do is abide by the principles they signed up to and respect the rights of refugees to live and work with dignity.