At least 71 killed in bus crash involving Afghans deported from Iran
The Herat provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police said the crash occurred in Guzara district near the city of Herat. Police attributed the accident to the bus’s “excessive speed and negligence.”
At least 71 people, including 17 children, died in western Afghanistan on Tuesday when a passenger bus carrying refugees recently deported from Iran caught fire after colliding with a truck and a motorcycle, officials said.
The Herat provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police said the crash occurred in Guzara district near the city of Herat. Police attributed the accident to the bus's "excessive speed and negligence."
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, a provincial official, told AFP that all passengers had boarded the bus at Islam Qala, a border crossing point, and were en route to Kabul. Two people travelling in the truck and two on the motorcycle were also killed, says Al Jazeera.
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Taliban government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to dpa that the victims had recently been deported from Iran but said further details were not immediately available.
The passengers were part of a wave of Afghans deported or forced out of Iran in recent months. Last December, two separate bus accidents in central Afghanistan killed at least 52 people. Traffic accidents are common due to poor roads, dangerous driving, and weak regulation.
Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni announced on Monday that a further 800,000 undocumented Afghans would be required to leave Iran by next March.
Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since early June, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), after Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented refugees. Between June 1 and July 5, more than 449,000 crossed the border, bringing the 2024 total to over 900,000, the International Organization for Migration said.
The returnees add to Afghanistan's existing challenges, as the country under Taliban rule since 2021 struggles to integrate waves of returnees from Iran and Pakistan amid one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. UNHCR data shows more than 1.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan this year. Iran's May directive affects an estimated 4 million undocumented Afghans among approximately 6 million Afghan residents in the country.
