As this correspondent stood at the windswept border post of Islam Qala, 300 Afghans poured off Iranian buses and trudged back into Afghanistan. Every day 1,000-odd Afghans return this way from jobs they once had in Iran. Afghans have long toiled illegally in factories and on building sites after being smuggled across the desert into Iran. Life as an illegal worker was hard, returning Afghans say. The police persecuted them and their bosses cheated them. But it was worth the trouble for the wages sent back to families in villages with no work for young men.
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