“Return to Hell”; Massive deportation of unaccompanied Afghan women from Iran.
Thousands of unaccompanied Afghan women have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan’s southern borders by Iran amid increasing restrictions on women by the Taliban; Observers have described the move as a direct return of these women to the hell of repression and disenfranchisement.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the deportation of Afghan citizens, especially women, has increased sharply as the Iranian government’s deadline for undocumented migrants to leave has expired. In the past month alone, more than 250,000 migrants have been deported, hundreds of them unaccompanied women.
According to the report, released on Monday, many of these women are now wandering, homeless and unsupported in Afghanistan’s border areas after years of living in Iran. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 100 unaccompanied women have been returned to Afghanistan via the Nimroz border in recent months alone.
The Taliban have banned any travel, work, land ownership or social activities of women without a mahram. The mass deportation of these women to Taliban-controlled territory, human rights groups say, puts them at direct risk of violence, detention, extreme poverty and systematic repression.
As the deportation process continues, thousands of migrants flock to the border areas every day; This has not only exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, but also raised serious questions about the silence of international organizations.
