At least 71 die in bus crash involving Afghans deported from Iran

Police successful occidental Afghanistan’s Herat state accidental the mishap was owed to the bus’s ‘excessive velocity and negligence’. 

At slightest 71 people, including 17 children, person been killed successful occidental Afghanistan aft a rider autobus carrying refugees, precocious deported from neighbouring Iran, caught occurrence aft colliding with a motortruck and motorcycle, according to provincial authorities spokesperson Ahmadullah Muttaqi and section police.

Police successful Herat state said connected Tuesday that the mishap was owed to the bus’s “excessive velocity and negligence”.

The returnees are portion of a massive question of Afghans deported oregon forced retired of Iran successful caller months.

The mishap took spot a time aft Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that a further 800,000 radical would person to permission the state by adjacent March.

The autobus was carrying Afghans precocious returned from Iran and en way to the superior Kabul, provincial authoritative Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told the AFP quality bureau connected Tuesday. He added that each the passengers boarded the conveyance successful Islam Qala, a borderline crossing point.

Taliban authorities main spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to the dpa quality bureau that the victims had been deported from Iran, but said that further details were not disposable immediately.

Police successful the Guzara territory extracurricular Afghanistan’s metropolis of Herat, wherever the mishap occurred, said a motorcycle was besides involved.

The bulk of those who died were connected the bus, but 2 radical travelling successful the motortruck were besides killed, arsenic good arsenic different 2 who were connected the motorcycle.

Traffic accidents are communal successful Afghanistan, owed successful portion to mediocre roads aft decades of war, unsafe driving connected highways and a deficiency of regulation.

Last December, 2 autobus accidents, involving a substance tanker and a motortruck connected a road done cardinal Afghanistan, killed astatine slightest 52 people.

Every year, conflict, persecution, poorness and precocious unemployment thrust ample numbers of Afghans to transverse the 300km (186-mile) Islam Qala borderline into Iran without documentation. Many enactment successful low-wage jobs successful large cities, including connected operation sites, wherever they are valued arsenic inexpensive and reliable labour.

Nearly 450,000 Afghans person returned from Iran since aboriginal June, according to the United Nations exile bureau (UNHCR), aft Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented refugees to permission the country.

The surge compounds Afghanistan’s existing challenges, arsenic the impoverished nation, backmost nether hardline Taliban regularisation since 2021, struggles to integrate waves of returnees from Pakistan and Iran since 2023, amid 1 of the world’s worst humanitarian crises aft decades of conflict.

The UNHCR reports that much than 1.4 cardinal radical person “returned oregon been forced to instrumentality to Afghanistan” this twelvemonth alone. Iran’s precocious May directive perchance affects 4 cardinal undocumented Afghans among the astir 6 cardinal Afghan residents claimed by Tehran.

Border crossings accrued dramatically from mid-June, with immoderate days seeing astir 40,000 radical entering Afghanistan. Between June 1 and July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, bringing the 2024 full to 906,326, according to an International Organization for Migration spokesman.