73 including children killed in Afghanistan bus accident carrying deported migrants from Iran

At least 73 people, including 17 children, were killed in a devastating traffic accident in western Afghanistan after a bus carrying recently deported Afghan migrants collided with a truck and a motorcycle late Tuesday night.

The accident occurred in Herat province, where the impact caused the bus to burst into flames, leaving no survivors on board. Two additional victims from the other vehicles also perished, according to Taliban officials.

“All the passengers were Afghan migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala, a border town near Iran,” said Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesman for the Herat provincial governor. Taliban’s information and culture director in Herat, Ahmadullah Mottaqi, confirmed the fatalities.

Herat police attributed the crash to the bus driver’s “excessive speed and negligence.”

The tragedy underscores the plight of Afghan migrants amid a surge in forced deportations from Iran, where undocumented Afghans face growing hostility and systemic discrimination.

Iran had previously issued a deadline for undocumented Afghans to leave voluntarily by July but, after its brief conflict with Israel in June, began mass deportations citing security concerns. Critics allege Tehran is scapegoating Afghans to cover its security lapses.

Since January, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that over 1.5 million Afghans have left Iran, many of whom had been settled there for generations. Analysts warn that Afghanistan, already strained under Taliban rule and absorbing returnees from Pakistan, lacks the infrastructure and resources to support this rapidly rising influx.