Drug traffickers in Herat are constantly seeking new ways to play their trade. Their latest trick is to use children to move their product.

Farhad, 15, sits quietly in a corner of the Children’s Education Center in Herat. Just a few weeks ago he lived with his sister and brother in Herat city, and could play with his contemporaries; now he is detained in this center, accused of drug trafficking.

“My father married another woman and left us,” he explained. I was the only one who could provide food for my five sisters and my small brother. My mother is ill – she suffers from gallstones. One of our relatives asked me to sell a bag of drugs for him. He promised me money, and I agreed. I had no idea of the consequences.”

Farhad began to cry.

Herat, which sits on the border with Iran, has become a center of the drugs trade. Farhad is one of many children pressed into service as drug couriers, forced by poverty and necessity to seek some source of income.

“Drug smugglers in some districts force children to swallow drugs, and then they send them across the border,” said Gul Agha, a resident of Herat city. “Once they are in Iran, they are given a substance which makes them regurgitate the drugs.”

Often these children are caught and imprisoned in Iran; they are kept in jail until they are 18, after which they can be executed. A recent spate of hangings in Iran has focused attention on the problem; some claim that up to 45 Afghans were hanged, most, like Farhad, the victims of drug scams.

“I wish the government would catch these smugglers and bring them to justice,” said Farhad.

His career as a drug trafficker lasted just a few days, he explained. “The police came to my house and arrested me while my mother lay sick in hospital,” he said.

Farhad’s mother, who has recently undergone surgery, is now cleaning houses to support her family.

Abdul Qayum Rahimi, head of Herat’s Human Rights Commission, believes that drug smugglers use children in the belief that if caught they will not be punished as harshly as adults.

“The smugglers first get the child addicted to drugs, and then use him to transport drugs from place to place,” he said. “Thousands of children in Herat have become addicts.”


The acting Head of Herat’s Office of Counter-Narcotics, Ahmad Zia Hafizi, said that his department had apprehended eight children, aged 10 to 17, in the last month.

“The only way to stop the involvement of children in drug trafficking is to fight drug smugglers,” he said. “We are doing a lot of work to put an end to this practice.”

Farhad now regrets his actions, but it is too late. He longs for his freedom.

There are more than 140 other children and teenagers kept in this center, all accused of drug smuggling.

Analysts believe that the smugglers use children as an easy way to accomplish their goals.

Social and political analyst Abdul Rahman Salahi says that poor living conditions and economic desperation play the major role in the tragedy; drug traffickers use children from poor families for their business. Under Afghan law, children are handled more leniently, which benefits the smugglers and makes it easier for them to engage children in the drugs trade.

“More than 40 percent of the population is under 18,” he explained. “If no action is taken to prevent children being caught up in this awful game, the future will look very dim. We must eliminate poverty, unemployment and insecurity, as well as provide children with opportunities for education.”

Children sometimes die in this dangerous game. They can overdose on drugs, or be shot and killed while trying to smuggle drugs into neighboring countries. Others are caught, and may be executed for their crimes in Iran.

There are hundreds of Afghan children accused of drug smuggling currently detained in neighboring countries, particularly in Iran.

Farhad worries about his family. He does not know how his sick mother will feed the rest of her children.

“I am not alone. There are many other children who are obliged to do this business to feed their families,” he sobbed. “Why does the government not pay any attention to this problem?”