Death sentence of 200 Afghans in Iran commuted to imprisonment

KABUL (TOLOnews): The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR) said on Sunday that the death sentence of 200 Afghan prisoners in Iran was recently commuted to imprisonment and they were handed over to the current Afghan government.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, said that more than 2,000 of the 6,000 Afghan prisoners in Iran had been released and sent back to the country.
Haqqani noted that a committee was established by the Islamic Emirate to handle the issues of Afghan prisoners in Iran.
“The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation is a member of this committee and with the efforts of this committee, more than 2,000 Afghans who were imprisoned in Iran have been released and were sent back to the country. In addition, 200 prisoners who had been given death sentences in Iran recently received jail terms instead and were sent back to Afghanistan,” Haqqani added.
In the meantime, some political analysts said that in order to prevent the citizens of the country from going abroad, it is necessary to provide employment opportunities to the people. “Despite the fact that there are nearly 6,000 Afghan immigrants in Iran’s prisons, the agreements made were only on some of these immigrants,” said Asifa Stanikzai, an immigrant rights activist.
“First, employment opportunities for Afghans should be created within Afghanistan. When Afghans have work in their homeland, they will not go to another country,” said Wahid Faqiri, an international relations expert.
According to figures from Iran’s foreign ministry, there are more than five million Afghan immigrants in the neighboring country.
Previously, an Iranian human rights organization said that in the last five months, seven Afghan immigrants were executed in Iran.