A group of women and women’s rights activists have recently sent a letter to Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warning against the mass deportation of Afghan migrants from neighboring countries, particularly Iran, describing it as a “silent death.”
According to the letter, which was sent on Saturday, July 13, to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the forced deportations are described as a “clear violation of international human rights laws and refugee protection principles.”
In the letter, the women and rights activists emphasized that the forced return of migrants, especially women, amounts to a “silent death.”
The letter reads: “The current government’s policies — including the ban on education, exclusion of women from society, and acts of violence such as flogging and torture — are a clear example of gender apartheid, and the return of refugee women to such a system is horrifying.”
Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, also stated that the number of migrants being deported from Iran has reached nearly 50,000 people per day.
According to UN statistics, more than 30,000 people enter Afghanistan daily through the Islam Qala border alone.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced that, in response to this situation, emergency measures have been launched to provide water, healthcare, nutrition, and vaccinations for thousands of people daily.
The UNHCR emphasized that this process, without proper planning and preparation, could further worsen the already fragile conditions of thousands of Afghan families, and called for urgent humanitarian aid.
The United Nations and international organizations have appealed for immediate financial assistance to address the needs of the migrants and the communities hosting them.
It is noteworthy that following the war between Iran and Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran has begun the widespread expulsion of Afghan migrants. Tehran claims it is only deporting undocumented Afghan migrants; however, migrants report that the police have torn up their documents, including visas and passports, and deported them despite having legal documentation.
