At least 71 people, including 17 children, have been killed in western Afghanistan after a passenger bus carrying recently deported refugees from neighboring Iran caught fire following a collision with a truck and a motorcycle, officials confirmed Tuesday.
According to Herat provincial spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police, the accident occurred in the Guzara district, just outside the city of Herat. Authorities blamed the crash on the bus driver’s “excessive speed and negligence.” The victims had been deported from Iran only days earlier and were traveling toward Kabul after crossing into Afghanistan at Islam Qala, a major border checkpoint.
Police said the majority of casualties were passengers on the bus. Two people in the truck and two riding the motorcycle were also killed. Images circulating on local media showed the vehicle engulfed in flames, with emergency teams struggling to recover remains.
The tragedy highlights the perilous journeys faced by tens of thousands of Afghans being expelled from Iran. Just one day before the crash, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni announced that an additional 800,000 Afghans would be forced to leave the country by March 2025.
Afghans have long migrated to Iran in search of work, often crossing the 186-mile Islam Qala border without proper documentation. Many find low-wage jobs in construction and other industries, but Tehran has increasingly tightened restrictions, citing security and economic pressures.
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According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since early June after Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave. In total, more than 1.4 million Afghans have “returned or been forced to return” from Iran and Pakistan in 2024 alone, straining Afghanistan’s already fragile economy and infrastructure.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that between June 1 and July 5 alone, nearly 450,000 people crossed back into Afghanistan from Iran, with some days seeing as many as 40,000 returnees.
Afghanistan, under Taliban rule since 2021, remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. With poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity already widespread, the sudden influx of returnees risks deepening the nation’s instability.