AFGHANS fleeing the Taliban are being kidnapped and tortured by gangs as they try to cross the border between Iran and Turkey on their way to Europe, a BBC investigation has found. The gangs then send videos of the abuse to the families of migrants being held hostage, demanding a ransom for their release.
Shackled together on a mountain-top with padlocks around their necks, a group of Afghan migrants beg for their release.
“Whoever watches this video, I was kidnapped yesterday, they are demanding $4,000 (£3,200) for each one of us. They beat us day and night non-stop,” says one man, with a bloodied lip, his face caked in dust.
Another video shows a group of men fully naked, crawling in the snow as someone whips them from behind.
“I have family, don’t do this to me; I have a wife and children, have mercy, please,” one man cries in another, shortly before he is filmed being sexually abused at knifepoint by one of the gangs.
These disturbing videos are evidence of a growing criminal enterprise, in which gangs in Iran kidnap mainly Afghan migrants trying to make their way to Europe.
The migration route from Afghanistan to Iran, then across the border into Turkey and onto the rest of Europe, has been used for decades. In fact, I took part of the same journey myself 12 years ago when fleeing Iran for the UK, where I was granted asylum.
But the route is now more dangerous than ever.
Those trying to cross from Iran into Turkey walk for hours over dry, mountainous terrain with no trees to provide shade, making it harder to avoid security forces who patrol the area.
As hundreds of thousands have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, gangs have seen an opportunity to profit from the huge increase in the number of people making the journey.
Often in collaboration with the smugglers, they are kidnapping people on the Iranian side of the border, extorting money from vulnerable groups who have often already paid large sums in order to ensure safe passage.
The BBC team heard stories of torture from at least 10 locations along the border. One activist who has been documenting the abuse for the past three years told us he received as many as two or three videos of torture a day at its peak.
In an apartment in Turkey’s commercial capital Istanbul, we meet Amina.
She had a successful career as a police officer in Afghanistan, but fled the country when she realised the Taliban were going to retake power, having received threats before from the group.
Softly-spoken and wearing a purple headscarf, she told me about her experience on the border when she and her family were taken hostage by a gang.
“I was very scared, I was terrified, because I was pregnant and there was no doctor. We had heard many stories of young boys being raped.”
Her father Haji told us the gang sent him a video showing the torture of an unknown Afghan man after they had kidnapped Amina and other members of his family.
“This was the situation I was in. By sending these videos they were warning me. If you don’t pay the ransom we will kill your daughters and your son-in-law,” he says.
Haji sold his house in Afghanistan to pay the gang and get his family released. They then tried again to get into Turkey, this time successfully.
But the eight-day ordeal on the border was too much for Amina.
She lost her baby.