15-Year-Old Afghan Migrant Dies Crossing Border to Iran

A 15-year-old Afghan boy, Habibullah, froze to death while trying to cross the mountainous border into Iran in search of work, his family said.

“He was forced to go to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, told AFP at their home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food, no clothes, no electricity, no water. The house is barely livable, and we have nothing to burn for heating.”

Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died last month attempting to cross illegally into Iran from Herat province, where temperatures dropped to around -3°C.

With ongoing droughts and recent earthquakes worsening conditions in Afghanistan, the United Nations estimates that nearly half of the population will need humanitarian aid this year.

Mah Jan said she had no choice but to let her son leave. “I thought, let him go to make our life better,” she said.

Habibullah’s stepbrother, Gul Ahmad, explained that the teenager had tried low-paying jobs, including shoe polishing, earning just 15 afghanis (23 cents) per day. “He was ready to work as a shepherd for 2,000 afghanis ($30) a month, or in a shop, but he found nothing. So he was forced to leave. He told his mother, ‘Let's trust in God, I’m going to Iran.’”

According to Afghan authorities, 15 bodies were returned from Iran, while three more were recovered on the Afghan side of the border.

In the same period, Iranian border guards rescued around 1,600 Afghan migrants at risk from harsh weather in the mountains, Iranian media reported.