Human Rights Watch expressed concern Sunday over Iran's reported execution of several Afghans for drug trafficking-related offenses.
The Afghans sentenced to death did not receive fair trials and were not given opportunities to seek assistance from the Afghan government, said Hearther Barr, Human Rights Watch's Afghanistan researcher.
"We know that when people are sentenced to death in Iran they often have not received a fair trial and in the situation of Afghans, they are not given the opportunity to get assistance from the Afghan government," Barr said.
The dead bodies of several Afghan refugees who were recently executed in Iran arrived in northern Takhar province and were buried on Saturday. The refugees were sentenced to death for drug trafficking, reports suggest.
"According to our reports, only seven Afghans were executed in Iran in the past four months," spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations Islamuddin Jurat said Sunday.
The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Iranian officials to inform the Afghan government about death sentences issued for Afghan refugees in Iran.
"We have urged the Iranian government several times to at least inform the Afghan government about the execution of Afghan refugees in their country," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Janan Mosazai told TOLOnews on Sunday.
The Iranian embassy's media relations officer in Afghanistan, Farzad Amin, did not confirm the reports but said that he would investigate them.
"We have heard about execution of Afghan refugees from Afghan media outlets, but it has not been confirmed by the Iranian government yet. We will comment about this once it's confirmed," Amin said.