On May 17, 2014, members of Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the parliament, accused Iran of "forcibly sending Afghan refugees to Syria" to fight alongside President Bashar Al-Assad's troops against the rebels, according to an Afghan website.[1]
There was uproar in the Wolesi Jirga as soon as a report, published by The Wall Street Journal, began circulating among the Afghan lawmakers that Tehran was paying $500 per month and granting Iranian residency to Afghan refugee youth to fight in Syria.
The report quoted Ayatollah Mohaqiq Kabuli, an Afghan refugee leader based in the Iranian town of Qom, as saying: "They [the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] find a connection to the refugee community and work on convincing our youth to go and fight in Syria… They give them everything from salary to residency."[2]
Every year, hundreds of poor Afghans illegally cross into Iran in search of jobs. Tehran is also reportedly offering school registration for the children of the Afghan refugees being recruited to fight in Syria. The Meshrano Jirga, the Afghan senate, also ordered a probe into the report and asked the government to take up the issue with the Iranian government.
The following are excerpts from an Afghan website report on the issue:[3]
"The issue of sending Afghan refugees to Syria was discussed in the lower house. Lawmaker from northern Kunduz province Sukhria Paikan said Afghans were forced by abject poverty at home to travel to neighboring countries in search of jobs. 'But over the past few years, Iran has been mounting pressure on Afghan refugee families to give over their sons reaching 18 years of age to be sent to Syria,' she claimed. Paikan said the Afghan government should take urgent and necessary measures at preventing the Iranian move, which she said was highly condemnable.
"Her colleague from eastern Nangarhar province Amir Khan Yaar said Tehran forced Afghan refugees into joining President Assad forces to fight the rebels. 'But it is our own mistake because we have not been able to create jobs and prevent our people from migrating to neighboring countries,' said Yar, who urged Iranian authorities to stop exploiting the plight of Afghan refugees there. The lawmaker asked the Kabul government to take all possible measures to prevent Afghan refugees from being sent to Syria.
"Qudratullah Zaki, who represents northern Takhar province, said that Iran violated the principles of neighborhood and international laws by forcibly sending Afghan refugees to Syria. He said the Afghan government should not allow a neighboring country to use its citizens for its own interests.
"[Wolesi Jirga] Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the Afghan government was responsible to resolve problems being faced by its citizens in foreign countries. He said the lower house would send letters to the ministries of foreign affairs and refugee and repatriation to resolve the problems of Afghans in Iran…"
Soon after the reports about Afghan refugees being sent to fight in Syria emerged, the Afghan senate also took up the issue and ordered a probe, according to an Afghan media report.[4] "Afghan senate house speaker Fazal Hadi Muslimyar also asked the Afghan government to seek clarification from Iran in this regard. Muslimyar said the poor Afghan refugees are recruited and sent to fight in Syria where they are killed, and the government of Afghanistan should resolve the issue," the report added.[5]
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