Afghan police search for 14 missing migrants after five die in heat

Authorities in southwestern Afghanistan were searching on Monday for 14 people missing in the desert after five other migrants trying to reach Iran died in severe heat, police said.

The group had left more than a week earlier in Nimroz, one of Afghanistan's driest and hottest provinces, where temperatures rise above 45C. Police said their vehicle broke down in a storm and became stuck in dust.

Gul Mohammad Qudrat, the Nimroz provincial police spokesman, said the driver went toward residential areas to seek help or find someone who could repair the vehicle, but he lost his way. Police later found him and took him to Nimroz provincial hospital because he was exhausted from thirst and extreme heat. Qudrat did not say when the driver was found.

Police said five migrants who had been in the vehicle were later recovered dead after dying from thirst and exhaustion. Qudrat said there was still no news about the other 14 missing people and that search operations were continuing in Chahar Burjak district of Nimroz.

A doctor at Nimroz provincial hospital said two brothers were among the five victims brought to the facility by security forces. The doctor, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said such cases happen every day and that there are many casualties because people lose their way on the route. The doctor said on Sunday that the latest victims were from Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, hundreds of kilometres away.

Police said a search was also underway for the driver, who had fled the hospital.

People are drawn to Iran by better job opportunities and a common language, but legal routes are limited. Temperatures near Afghanistan's border with Iran can reach dangerous highs in summer and can also fall sharply in winter. At least 18 migrants froze to death in December while trying to reach Iran from Afghanistan's Herat province, when temperatures were around minus 3C.