UN expert wants probe into reports of Iranian border forces' deadly attack on Afghan migrants

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — (AP) — A United Nations expert is calling for an investigation into reports that an attack by Iranian security forces on the border with Afghanistan killed and wounded migrants.

Iran has denied any shooting took place Sunday near Saravan, a town in the country's restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

However, anti-Afghan migrant rhetoric has escalated in Iran in recent months as Western sanctions grind down its economy, with the country’s police chief claiming some 2 million migrants would be deported in the next six months.

The Taliban said Thursday they will provide updates once their investigation into the reported attack is complete. Their chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that rumors were circulating about the deaths and injuries of Afghans on the Iran border.

“The information has not yet been confirmed. The necessary decision will be taken after clarification of the matter,” he said on social media platform X.

HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people that is broadly focused on Iran, has issued a series of reports over the shooting, citing two unnamed witnesses to the attack and others claiming a death toll that ran at least into the dozens, with more wounded. It published images of what appeared to be several corpses and others with gunshot wounds. HalVash alleged Iranian security forces used both firearms and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the attack. Verifying information remains difficult in Sistan and Baluchistan, which for decades has been home to cross-border insurgency and violence involving heroin traffickers.

However, Richard Bennett, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has called for a probe into the reports, saying he was “seriously concerned.”

“I call for authorities to investigate transparently. Clarity is urgently needed,” he wrote on X. “These reports don’t stand in isolation. More dignity & safety is needed for Afghans worldwide.”

On Wednesday, Iran began to push back on the reports. Gen. Reza Shojaei, a commander of the provincial border guard, called the reports of a shooting “basically false.” Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, the Iranian president’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs, also called the claims “not true” on X and blaming the story’s spread on “the frenzy of the lying media.”

Large numbers of Afghans have called Iran home for decades, from the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, through the first rule of the Taliban, the 20031U.S.-led invasion and the 2 021 Taliban takeover. The United Nations' refugee agency estimates 3.8 million displaced people live in Iran, the vast majority of them Afghans. Some in Iran suggest the number of Afghans is even higher.

Police and authorities are signalling they want to deport more Afghans. Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan earlier this month signaled the country planned to deport 2 million undocumented migrants in the next six months, though he stopped short of identifying them as Afghans. He said some 500,000 already had been deported.

“We cannot allow some individuals to enter the country illegally, reside, and work,” he said. “Citizens and business owners should know that employing these individuals and housing illegal foreign nationals is a crime.”

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