The Kabul Tribune (KT) — At least 17 Afghan migrants, including women and children, have reportedly died from severe thirst near the border area of Saravan in southeastern Iran, the human rights group HalVash reported.
The incident occurred Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Mak-Sukhteh
area of Rutak, in Saravan County, according to HalVash. The group said the
victims’ bodies were later transferred to a morgue in the nearby city of Khash.
Videos released by HalVash show people digging several
graves at an unidentified location.
HalVash reported that five of the victims were members of a
family from Afghanistan’s Baghlan province. They were a 45-year-old mother and
her four daughters, ages 22, 18, 16 and 14.
Relatives of the family live in Saravan, and a funeral
prayer for them was expected to be held Sunday, the group said.
At least six other victims were children younger than 14,
according to HalVash.
Witnesses and relatives told the rights group that the
migrants ran severely short of water while traveling and died of thirst. Some
of the victims reportedly died within a short distance of one another.
A relative told HalVash that the men traveling with the
group separated from the women and children partway through the journey. The
women and children then continued without adequate access to water, the
relative said.
Local sources said the bodies were taken to Khash because
the morgue in Saravan did not have enough capacity.
Four days after the incident, relatives were still trying to
arrange the transfer and burial of the victims, according to HalVash.
The group cautioned that it could not independently verify
the exact number of deaths or all details of the incident. It said the
identities of the other victims and the circumstances surrounding their deaths
were still being investigated.
