KABUL (AFP) - Fleeing grinding poverty and unemployment, thousands of Afghan Shi'ites have been recruited by Iran to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, former fighters and rights activists say.
Afghan men and boys as young as 14 are signing up to fight on the promise of money and legal residency in Shi'ite-dominated Iran, Assad's regional ally, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Since 2013 the Afghans, including undocumented migrants living in Iran, have joined the Teheran-backed Fatemiyoun division fighters in Syria, said HRW and ex-members who spoke to AFP on condition their real names were not used.
"For me it was just about money," said Shams, a former fighter.
The 25-year-old, a member of the Hazara ethnic group, went to Syria twice in 2016 to fight in a conflict that has now been raging for more than six years.
"Whoever I saw was going for money and to have free entry to Iran. I never saw anyone fighting for religious reasons," said Shams, who now lives in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The withdrawal of US-led Nato combat troops at the end of 2014 drained the Afghan economy and left many people out of work, fuelling the flow of migrants into Iran in search of a better life.
HRW estimated last year that Iran hosts around three million Afghans.
In this desperate pool Iranian recruiters targeted to swell the ranks of Fatemiyoun soldiers, who HRW says fight alongside Syrian government forces.
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