The Haalvsh human rights organisation says at least 17 Afghan migrants, including women, men and children, died from severe thirst in the Mak Sookhteh area near the Rotak border zone in Saravan, Iran.
Haalvsh said the incident occurred on Thursday, 10 September. According to the organisation, the bodies were later transferred from the area to a morgue in Khash.
Videos published by Haalvsh show several people digging multiple graves at an unidentified location.
According to the report, five of those who died were members of one family from Afghanistan’s Baghlan province.
They included a 45-year-old mother and her four daughters, aged 22, 18, 16 and 14. Relatives of the family live in Saravan, and their funeral prayers were expected to be held on Sunday.
Haalvsh said at least six children under the age of 14 were also among the other victims.
Witnesses and relatives of the victims said the migrants ran out of water while travelling and died from thirst, with some dying close to one another.
One relative told Haalvsh that the men travelling with the group had separated from the women and children along the route, after which the women and children continued without adequate access to water.
Local sources said the bodies were transferred to Khash because the morgue in Saravan did not have enough capacity.
Four days after the incident, families were still trying to arrange the transfer and burial of the victims.
Haalvsh stressed that it had not been able to independently verify the exact number of deaths or all details of the incident, and said information about the identities of the other victims and the circumstances of the deaths was still being investigated.
