At least 18 people were killed, including 10 children and five women, and dozens more injured after a truck carrying Afghan migrants who had returned from Pakistan overturned early Saturday, local media reported. The truck overturned on a highway in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Laghman, around 5:30 am local time.
According to Habibullah Mubarez, the Taliban’s traffic director in Laghman, the incident happened near the Surkhkanu intersection in Qarghayi district of Laghman province, along the main Kabul–Jalalabad highway, Afghan Media outlet Amu TV reported.
All of the victims were Afghan migrants who had recently returned from Pakistan, said Taliban disaster management officials in neighbouring Nangarhar. According to them, the passengers were temporarily settled in Kunar province and were being transported to Kabul when the vehicle overturned.
"18 people were killed, and 35 others were injured in the crash. The wounded were transferred to medical facilities in Nangarhar for treatment," read a statement released by the Taliban governor’s office in Laghman. The cause of the accident was not clear immediately.
The accident took place as Afghanistan continues to receive large numbers of returnees from neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan, which has intensified efforts to deport undocumented Afghan migrants. At least 4,000 migrants are deported from Pakistan on a daily basis, according to the Taliban commission for refugees.
“International aid agencies have warned that the mass return of migrants is placing additional strain on transportation networks and public services, especially in eastern provinces that serve as key entry points into the country,” the report added. Between April 26 and May 9, around 114,321 people returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said earlier this month.
The organisation noted that the returnees include both deportees and voluntary returnees, comprising 14,778 families, many of them women and children. Between January 1 and May 9, more than 3.5 million people had returned to Afghanistan, comprising almost 487,000 families, according to the IOM.