Nineteen Afghan migrants have died tragically from severe desert heat and thirst while trying to enter Iran, Gulf News reported.
Local authorities in Nimroz province in south-western Afghanistan said the 19 men, from Badghis province in the north-west, were trying to cross the border into Iran illegally. But they became stranded in the desert along the way for lack of water in the intense heat and died from thirst and the heat.
Habibullah Elham, director of Nimroz’s information and culture department, said 14 bodies were recovered from the Rig-e Lalo desert in Nimroz during a rescue operation for the missing, with the help of local residents.
Earlier, five more bodies had been recovered from the nearby Dasht-e Margo desert, known as the “valley of death”. The recovery of the latest 14 bodies confirmed the deaths of all 19 migrants in the group.
Provincial spokesman Abdul Mutawakil Tawahidi said the local administration and residents had recovered and moved the bodies from the remote area.
The dead migrants were all residents of a particular village in Badghis province. They had left the country and were trying to reach Iran mainly in search of work and a better economic life. Nimroz province, on the border with Iran and Pakistan, is one of the main transit routes for Afghan migrants. But desert crossings in the region are extremely dangerous because of vast sand dunes, a harsh landscape and summer temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius.
Human rights and humanitarian aid organisations have repeatedly warned that at this time of summer, migrants face serious risks to their lives from dehydration, extreme weather and exhaustion while crossing the desert. The incident is a grim example of the dangers of these illegal and perilous migration routes from Afghanistan.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report