Nearly 900 Afghan minors have been deported from Iran to Nimroz province in Afghanistan in the last two months, a local official in Nimroz said.
Sediqullah, 14, is one of hundreds of children who have been deported by Iranian security forces but whose families remain in Iran He is striving to find a way to join his family again.
“My two brothers and parents are still in Iran, I have been arrested and repatriated,” said Sediqullah, an Afghan returnee. “We ask the Afghan government to give us money so that we can go to our homes,” said another returnee, Muhammad.
“There was a problem in my family, to solve that, I decided to work to earn money,” said Edrees, an Afghan returnee. Local officials in Nimroz province said that they are trying to find ways to return these minors to their homes.
“The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has signed several MoUs with different organizations to return these children to their homes,” said Muhammad Omar Zubair, head of the directorate of Labor and Social Affairs in Nimroz province.
It comes as the repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran has recently increased. Coinciding with International Children’s Day, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has emphasized the observance of children’s rights around the world.
UNICEF emphasized the rights of children while some children in Afghanistan are unaware of this day. They have told TOLOnews that they do hazardous work to earn bread for their families.
“I earn 70-80 Afs every day, I take bread home and I walk all these places,” said Asif, a child who does hazardous work. “I come out here and work to find bread to take home,” said Mustafa, a child laborer.
Sohrab, who is polishing boots on the side of one of the roads in the capital, told the TOLOnews reporter that he has a family of seven and his parents are disabled. Besides working, he studies in the fourth grade of school.
“There are seven of us in the house. My parents are also disabled, so I don’t have any workers at home, so I come to work here and to find something for my family,” Sohrab said.
“We are poor, what should we do? we just find a piece of bread for our parents, for our brothers and sisters who are small,” said Shirzad, a child laborer.
Samiullah Ebrahimi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, said that efforts are being made to prevent children from hazardous work and support their families.
“Children engaged in hazardous work will be stopped and support will be given to their families when possible and im various ways they will be supported with technical training. The children will also be supported by implemented programs,” Ebrahimi told TOLOnews.
On World Children’s Day, UNICEF said that a better future can be achieved by giving priority to children’s rights.—Tolonews
