October 06, 2017

The Iranian regime is preying on vulnerable refugee children

located:	India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

If you thought the Shia Hazara minority wasn't suffering enough in Pakistan and Afghanistan now the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are exploiting their children for Tehran’s strategic aims in the Syria war.

In a distressing confirmation of the otherwise buzzing topic, the Human Rights Watch has now categorically charged Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with recruiting Afghan children, as young as 14 and living in Iran, to enter fight in Syria. The IRGC is supervising the Fatemiyoun Division, an exclusively Afghan armed group supported by Iran to aid the Assad regime in Damascus.

This reputed rights body has come up with solid and undeniable evidence of at least eight minor Afghans thrown by Iran into the flames of war in Syria, where they all lost their lives. The evidence presented by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report issued on October 1st is based on the tombstone epitaphs of these child soldiers inside Iran. Middle East director at the HRW Sarah Leah Whitson has described the Iranian regime's manipulation of the Afghan children as "preying on vulnerable immigrant and refugee children", amounting to indisputable war crimes.

It was equally frustrating to note these frightening accounts fell on deaf ears in practically all relevant quarters of the world, even among the parties to the conflict, and failed to stir any engaging debates or proposed call to actions in the international community.

The Kabul government – which should have reacted strongly to amplify the calls for justice for its vulnerable refugees in Iran – instead chose to stay silent as if surrendering in defeat and acknowledging this as the destiny of those who were forced to find refuge in its country. Instead what the asylum seekers found in Iran is death for the sake of Iran, as foot soldiers on a murky front in a war that to them, means nothing.

Besides the governments in Tehran and Kabul, the third important player in this complex paradox is the religious leadership, which doubles as a political body in th Hazara community. Aim to safeguarde its people from the preachings of hatred, it only pavines the way for them to take up arms under one pretext or another and embark on this deadly journey.

These bright and dedicated Afghans deserve a much better life of peace and equal opportunities where they can thrive in their own country, instead they are forced into alien lands leading filled with thorny and deadly paths.

Photo: RFS