Vast fire at Afghani-Iranian border needs immediate solution

On February 15, 2021, a fire broke out at the Islam Qala border point, where an International Organization for Migration (IOM) reception center is located, at the Afghani-Iranian border. Fuel trucks were said to have burst into flames after what was reportedly a “small arms fire” (International Organization for Migration, 2021). Other reports claim that the overcrowding of the crossing point, with 2,500 trucks present, which holds a capacity of 700 trucks, could have caused the fire, which was large enough to be caught by NASA satellites from space (Sarfarazi et al, 2021).

Reports on the number of victims diverge, with CNN reporting 17 people being injured and taken to Islam Qala’s clinic and the regional Hospital in Herat (Yeung et al, 2021), while UN News reports an additional 40+ deaths during the incident. An additional death occurred as a result of security forces pulling the trigger on a vehicle after the driver missed a security checkpoint. The checkpoint was set in place after looters appeared to steal goods left unwatched during the fire (AFP, 2021). Indeed, Islam Qala is the largest and most imported dry port between Afghanistan and Iran, which means a large number of goods are transported through the town. The fire cost around $50 million US Dollars in damages and losses (AFP, 2021; Xinhua, 2021; Som, 2021).

Around 10% of the world’s 26.3 million refugees (as of mid-2020) come from Afghanistan, that has 2.7 million documented refugees in the world (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2021). Iran is one of the world’s biggest recipient of refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, with close to 1 million refugees overall, and an estimated additional 2.1-2.5 million undocumented Afghans living in Iran.

Thus, this border is a major migration center for Iran, Afghanistan, and the region overall. It is fortunate that the returnees registered at the IOM reception center that day had already moved on “to their next destination before the fire began” explained the program manager of IOM’s cross border-return response (UN News, 2021), meaning the refugees and immigrants were left unharmed by the blaze.

However, the structural damage suffered by the IOM center could be costly for the following population relocations. In 2020, around 860,000 undocumented Afghan migrants passed through the now devastated area, meaning the two countries and the invested non-governmental organizations will have to quickly find a new center to accommodate the needs of migrants, or repair the damage done to the center. The 15,000 people that used to go through the border daily, indeed, require very specific humanitarian assistance, from hot meals and medical items to counselling and transportation (UN News, 2021), something they would struggle to find on the charred ground of the Islam Qala border point.