As Thousands of Afghans Leave Their Country, Many Head for Iran

It is early morning in the Maimana city bus station, and crowds of young men are waiting to board buses that will take them far away.

Yuldash Mohammad, 27, stows his bags under the seat of a bus leaving for Balkh province, but his ultimate destination is Iran.

“I am a farmer,” he told IWPR. “I sold my bull and my farming equipment, and I am going to Iran. There I hope to find work and make money to send to my family.”

His farm, he said, was all but barren due to the recent drought.

“What else can I do?” he sighed. “My children are hungry. We cannot find any work here, so I have to leave so that my family can survive.”

Ezatullah, who runs the bus station, told IWPR that his business has boomed. “Everyday, seven to eight buses, each with 50 passengers, leave for Balkh province,” he said. “Most of these people are going on to Iran.”

Afghanistan has seen wave after wave of its citizens leave over the decades, fleeing the successive wars and conflicts in the country. Many had returned following the fall of the Taleban, but now economic and climatic conditions are forcing them to depart again.

There are currently about one million Afghan refugees in Iran and two million in Pakistan. Both countries are encouraging the Afghans to return home; Iran, especially, has undertaken harsh measures in recent years to force the refugees to leave.

But the buses continue to roll out of Maimana, the capital of Faryab.

Faryab is a remote province situated in northern Afghanistan, where agriculture is the main source of income. Farmers rely on natural sources -- rain and snow -- to water their lands. There are no irrigation canals or other artificial means of getting water to their crops.

A severe drought which has plagued the north this past year has driven many farmers to ruin. The government, although concerned by the exodus, lacks the resources to help.

“Poverty, high prices and drought are driving the young people away, but we cannot help them,” said Mohammad Osman Murid, head of Faryab’s department of refugees and returnees. “People, especially young people, are leaving for Iran in groups.”

According to Osman, more than 16,000 young men have departed in the past year. The statistics, he added, might be misleading: the actual number was likely to be far higher, as it’s hard to keep check on the migration.

Local officials say that this year’s exodus is unprecedented and extremely worrying.

Provincial Governor Abdul Haq Shafaq traces the problem to the drought, and the resulting hunger among Faryab’s inhabitants, nearly 65,000 of whom are suffering real deprivation due to the lack of rainfall.

“The government has distributed 9,700 tonnes of wheat to those affected by the drought,” he said. “In addition, the Red Cross, Norway and the European Union have also provided assistance to these people. But still, not even 20 per cent of (the drought-stricken) have been covered.”

Humaira, 50, supports nine members of her family in Maimana. Since the drought, she cannot feed them adequately, and has to beg bread from her neighbors.

“I have sent two of my young sons and my son-in-law to Iran to work and send us money so that we can feed ourselves and the children,” she said. “I have not heard from them yet nor has the government provided any assistance to us.”

The governor said that he lacks the resources to help everyone.

“More than two million people live in this province,” he said. “Helping all of those affected would require more resources.”

The international community and the central government should intervene to avert a humanitarian crisis, he insisted.