At least 71 people, including 17 children, lost their lives in western Afghanistan after a passenger bus carrying recently deported Afghan refugees from Iran collided with a truck and motorcycle before bursting into flames. The Herat provincial government confirmed the devastating toll, citing excessive speed and negligence as the main causes of the crash.
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Police reported that the victims were among thousands of Afghans expelled from Iran in recent months. The bus, which departed from the Islam Qala border crossing, was heading toward Kabul when it collided in Guzara district. Most fatalities occurred on the bus itself, while two passengers from the truck and two from the motorcycle were also killed.
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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the victims had been deported from Iran, while local officials said the returnees were part of a growing wave of forced migration. The accident comes just a day after Iran’s interior minister announced plans for another 800,000 Afghans to leave the country by March.
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Deadly road accidents are tragically common in Afghanistan, where decades of war have left infrastructure in ruins, highways unregulated, and drivers untrained. Just last December, two separate bus crashes involving heavy vehicles killed more than 50 people, underlining the dangers of travel in the country.
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The tragedy also highlights the wider refugee crisis. According to UNHCR, more than 1.4 million Afghans have been forced to return this year alone, many from Iran and Pakistan. Nearly 450,000 Afghans crossed back from Iran between June and early July, overwhelming Afghanistan’s capacity to integrate them amid deep poverty and humanitarian collapse.
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Iran’s deportation policy affects millions of undocumented Afghans working in low-paying sectors like construction. By late May, Tehran’s directive risked displacing up to 4 million people. Border crossings surged to nearly 40,000 per day in June, with over 900,000 Afghans returning in 2024, straining Afghanistan’s fragile economy and social fabric under Taliban rule.
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