Taliban on Wednesday said that at least 4,000 Afghan prisoners have been transferred from Iran to Afghanistan.
Hamdullah Fitrat, a Taliban spokesman, said that following negotiations with the Iranian government, these Afghan prisoners were released from Iranian jails and returned to Afghanistan.
He called on Iran to coordinate with their judicial officials to release and repatriate the remaining Afghan prisoners.
The Iranian Human Rights Organization reported this week that Iran has executed 20 Afghan citizens on various charges over the past seven months.
According to the organization’s report, at least 300 people have been executed in Iranian prisons during this period, including 15 women, 42 Balochs, 20 Kurds, and 20 Afghans.
The Iranian government has yet to issue an official statement regarding these executions. However, some international human rights experts have expressed concern over the high number of Afghan citizens being executed, noting that Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions in Iran, managed by the Taliban, have not taken serious action on this matter.
Recently, Iran has intensified its efforts to detain and forcibly deport Afghan migrants. Additionally, Afghan migrants in Iran have reported an increase in mistreatment by both police and local citizens in recent days.
Following the killing of an Iranian citizen in eastern Tehran, Afghan migrants have faced heightened hostility. Videos circulating on social media over the past two weeks show Iranian citizens chanting “Death to Afghan migrants” during a protest, criticizing the Iranian government for its perceived negligence toward the migrant community.
The International Organization for Migration previously reported that nearly 8 million Afghan citizens have migrated since 2020. According to the report, 85 percent of these migrants have moved to neighboring countries, primarily Iran, with nearly one million going to Europe.
The report also noted that approximately 70 percent of those migrating to Iran cite the lack of job opportunities in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as the primary reason for their migration.
