A truck carrying Afghan families returning home from Pakistan overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 18 people—including 10 children.
The accident occurred on the highway connecting the eastern city of Jalalabad with the capital, Kabul.
According to Abdul Malik Niazay, spokesperson for the governor of Laghman province, the victims included ten children, five women, and three men. Another 29 passengers sustained injuries in the crash.
The vehicle was packed with families repatriating from Pakistan, amid an intensified crackdown by Pakistani authorities on undocumented Afghan migrants and refugees. This tightening of immigration policy has triggered a massive, often desperate outflow of families transporting their entire households across the border in commercial cargo trucks.
Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reveals that 447,400 Afghans have been forced to return from Pakistan since the start of the year.
Deadly traffic accidents remain a chronic hazard in Afghanistan. Decades of conflict have left the country's mountainous road networks in severe disrepair, a crisis compounded by reckless driving habits and a near-total absence of traffic safety regulations.
