Afghan Child Workers in Iran: Registered but still Trafficked

Iran’s Interior Minister recently said that most of the country’s “working children” – i.e. involved in child labor – are Afghan immigrants. According to the minister, these children will be identified and returned to Afghanistan by liaising with the Afghan authorities. But critics say that instead of addressing the challenges facing migrants in Iran the Islamic Republic wants to make the issue go away by ridding itself of the migrants themselves.

A spokesperson for Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the task of identifying the children has begun. But the head of the children's section of the Afghan Human Rights Commission has meanwhile reported that there is widespread discrimination and mistreatment of immigrants in Iran.

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On August 2, Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said after a meeting of the country's Social Council that most children involved in child labor, i.e. “working children,” were Afghan migrants and would be returned to Afghanistan in coordination with Afghan officials.

The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs meanwhile said that the process of identifying and registering Afghan working children had begun. Human rights organizations, however, have criticized the Islamic Republic for its treatment of Afghan migrants in Iran, referring to the widespread discrimination they face.

In an interview with IranWire, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gran Hewad stated that the Afghan embassy in Iran, while visiting several care homes for working children in Tehran, has begun the process of identifying and registering them.

“The next step is that these children should be identified to determine how many of them are Afghans,” Hewad said. "Then the children whose families live in Iran should be handed over to them. Those whose families live in Afghanistan and have been taken to Iran by smugglers will be returned to Afghanistan and returned to their families."

Many Afghan children in Iran have dropped out of school or been forced to work due to various forms of discrimination to help support their families. In addition to these children, there are some who have been trafficked to Iran specifically to work.

Now, with the outbreak of the coronavirus, the situation of working children has become alarming.

Najibullah Zadran Babrak Zai, head of the children's section of the Afghan Human Rights Commission, told IranWire that the Afghan government had been repeatedly asked to stop the smuggling of children to neighboring countries.

”Many children go to neighboring countries illegally to work,” Zai said. “It is not clear what kind of person their employers are or what environments the children will work in. Because of this, the risks are high. And the further working children are from their homes, the more vulnerable they become, so the situation of Afghan working children in Iran whose families are in Afghanistan is seriously worrying."

Citing examples of employers' treatment of migrants in Iran, the human rights activist said that, for various reasons, including the high wages of Iranian-born workers, they prefer to hire Afghan children with a lower wage and make them work more. But Zai added that "children who are smuggled into the country face many risks, such as abduction, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violence."

Despite these human rights reports and a number of protests by various institutions on the matter of the trafficking of Afghan children, the Iranian government has so far failed to prevent this tragedy.

According to Zai, border guards in cities such as Eslam-Qaleh, Zaranj, and Torkham have repeatedly reported seeing the scars of beatings on children. ”Sometimes the bodies of these children are brought to Afghanistan, having died from over-work” in Iran, Zai said.

According to him, providing employment to the families of these children is the best way to address the issue, so that these families are not forced to displace their own children to escape poverty, exposing them meanwhile to violence and danger.

”We have informed governments about this tragedy. It is now their job to provide social and individual care for children. The child smuggling mafia must be stopped,” Zai said.

The Islamic Republic is trying to prevent Afghan children from working on Iran's streets by passing a law. But poverty, unemployment, insecurity and addiction have disrupted the lives and wellbeing of children in Afghanistan, and there are perhaps thousands of working children on the streets. Many are currently scavenging in different cities across Afghanistan.

Human rights groups in Afghanistan have tried to warn the authorities of the dangers posed to children working on the streets. But instead of employment opportunities for their families, and social care for the children, what seems to be happening is just more displacement and poverty. Children will be more at risk of trafficking and falling into child labor because of these factors.