At least 78 people, including 17 children, were killed when a passenger bus carrying Afghan migrants deported from Iran collided with a truck and motorcycle before catching fire in western Afghanistan late Tuesday night, officials confirmed.
The accident occurred in Guzara district of Herat province, when the Kabul-bound bus crashed into a truck and motorcycle along a highway.
“Everyone aboard the bus was killed, along with two people from the other vehicles,” said Ahmadullah Mottaqi, Taliban’s provincial director of information and culture. Police blamed the crash on the driver’s excessive speed and negligence.
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Provincial spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi added that the victims had all boarded the bus in Islam Qala, a town near the Afghanistan–Iran border, after being deported.
Growing deportations from iran
The tragedy comes amid an unprecedented wave of forced returns from Iran. Since January, more than 1.5 million Afghans have been expelled, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Iran, which has long hosted millions of Afghan refugees, recently accelerated deportations, citing security concerns. Critics, however, argue Tehran is scapegoating migrants amid domestic unrest and fallout from its brief conflict with Israel earlier this year.
Last week, Iran’s Interior Minister announced that another 800,000 Afghans would have to leave the country by March.
Afghanistan under strain
Aid groups warn Afghanistan is struggling to cope with the mass return of refugees from both Iran and Pakistan. The Taliban-led country is already facing shrinking international aid, unemployment, and widespread poverty.
“The return of so many people is creating an additional strain on already overstretched resources,” said Arshad Malik, country director of Save the Children Afghanistan.
Traffic accidents are frequent in Afghanistan due to war-damaged infrastructure, poor regulation, and reckless driving. Tuesday’s disaster is one of the deadliest crashes in recent years, underscoring the risks faced by migrants forced to return to an unstable homeland.
