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KABUL – At least 71 Afghan refugees, including 17 children, were killed in a catastrophic bus crash in western Afghanistan after being forcibly deported from Iran.
The bus, packed with deportees en route from the border to Kabul, collided with a fuel truck and a motorcycle late Tuesday night in Herat’s Guzara district. The impact triggered an inferno that engulfed the vehicle, leaving behind a blackened shell of twisted metal and ash.
Local officials confirmed that only three passengers survived. Police attributed the tragedy to excessive speed and driver negligence. The two men inside the fuel truck and the two on the motorcycle also perished in the blaze.
Witnesses described scenes of horror as firefighters battled to extinguish the flames. “It was impossible to save anyone,” one local resident said, as families rushed to the site in search of loved ones.
The victims were among the hundreds of thousands of Afghans expelled from Iran in recent months, part of a wider wave of forced returns also taking place from Pakistan. The United Nations estimates more than 1.5 million Afghans have been pushed back into their country in 2025 alone, with more than 4 million since late 2023—many returning to poverty, joblessness, and repression under Taliban rule.
Human rights groups have condemned the deportations, warning that those sent back face arrest, torture, or abuse. The UN mission in Afghanistan has urged neighboring countries to halt mass expulsions, calling the policy a “life-threatening gamble” with the safety of vulnerable people.
Tuesday’s tragedy highlights the devastating consequences of this refugee crisis: Afghans who fled war and persecution, forced to return against their will, now perishing in a disaster that underscores the peril of displacement in a country already on the brink.
