Kabul Aug 31, : The Amnesty International has accused Turkish and Iranian border officials of murdering at least 14 Afghan refugees in the last year.The UK-based NGO claimed to have recorded the “unlawful killing” of 11 Afghans by Iranian security forces, and of three of them by Turkish security forces in the report titled “They Don’t Treat Us like Humans” that was released on Wednesday.
The rights group added that Iranian as well as Turkish security forces have repeatedly resisted Afghans trying to cross into these countries to escape according to the dpa news agency.
Iranian security forces have repeatedly fired on vehicles, and Turkish border guards had illegally fired live ammunition according to the report.
The figures pertain to the time that followed the Taliban were re-elected in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The human rights situation in the country has since significantly deteriorated.
Amnesty interviewed the following 74 Afghan citizens, five officials from the government lawyers, as well as other experts between November 2021 and May 2022 to prepare the report.
The organization also discovered an overall of 255 instances of illegal deportation in the period between March 2021 to May 2022.
The Geneva Convention on Refugees obliges hosts not to repatriate refugees to a country in which they are subject to persecution.
Turkey offers refugees the status of residents of European countries that are covered by the convention, while providing only a temporary status of protection for Syrian refugees.
Many reports by other non-governmental organizations suggest that refugee status is not granted to Afghans in Turkey for the majority of the time.
According to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior approximately 43,000 Afghans have been transferred to Afghanistan in the first half of this year.
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