Iran forces Afghan children into Syrian conflict, violates laws – HRANA
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Iran is forcibly conscripting migrants, particularly Afghan children, into military service by offering them financial rewards and legal residency, according to a report by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
According to the report, published on March 12, Iran has dispatched Afghan children to fight in Syria as part of the Fatemiyoun Brigade.
The findings of the report highlight Iran’s blatant violation of international laws, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which strictly prohibits the recruitment and use of children under 15 in armed conflicts.
The report sheds light on Iran’s extensive recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, with a specific focus on vulnerable populations such as migrants and Afghan children.
The report also reveals a distressing casualty rate among child soldiers, particularly within the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a militia group affiliated with Iran’s Quds Force.
HRANA added that Iran has recruited Afghan children into the Fatemiyoun Brigade and Pakistani individuals into the Zainabiyoun Brigade.
The Fatemiyoun Brigade is affiliated with Iran’s Liwa al-Quds militia and deploys Afghan forces to Syria, according to the report.
The report indicates that recruitment agents initially targeted Afghans for enlistment in this force, from factories to prisons, with promises that going to Syria would annul their prison sentences, stabilize their residency status in Iran, and provide them with houses and significant amounts of financial support.
Although the exact number of child soldiers in the Fatemiyoun is unclear, HRANA’s evidence suggests that the Revolutionary Guards have used children under 18, even under 15, as soldiers to join the Fatemiyoun and participate in the Syrian war.
A commander of the Fatemiyoun in 2018, stated that at least 80,000 individuals under the Fatemiyoun brigades were deployed to Syria, with 2,800 reported as killed.
HRANA’s report states that in 2017, Human Rights Watch confirmed the use of at least eight Afghan children in the Fatemiyoun Brigade by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. All these Afghan children were killed in the Syrian war, and four of them were only 14 years old at the time of their death.