Photos show homeless heroin addicts in Afghanistan rounded up and forced into grim rehab by the Taliban

Drug users detained in a Taliban raid wait to be taken to their room in the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

• Harrowing photos show homeless heroin addicts in Afghanistan forcibly detained in a treatment center.
• The Taliban are cracking down on drug use, which is rife in the country.
• Photos show the drug users being forced to live in prison-like conditions.

After coming to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban vowed to crack down on widespread drug addiction in the country.

The militant group has been conducting raids in Kabul to find and detain homeless men, often living under bridges, addicted to locally produced heroin and methamphetamine.

The Associated Press captured astonishing photos of one raid from earlier this week, where nearly 150 heroin addicts were rounded up, beaten, and forced into a rehab treatment center.

Heroin addicts in Kabul were rounded up by the Taliban and taken to a treatment center.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid wait to be shaved after arriving at the drug treatment center.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

Homeless heroin users were rounded up by Taliban fighters and taken to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment on the outskirts of Kabul.

The hospital was once Camp Phoenix, a military base established by the US army in 2003, but is now a drug treatment center that can accommodate 1,000 people.

 

The Taliban arrested heroin addicts in Kabul and burned all of their belongings in a pile.

At least 150 men were taken to the district police station, where all their belongings were burned in a pile as they are forbidden from taking them to the treatment center.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

The Taliban arrested most of the men under a bridge in Kabul's Guzargah district before taking them to the district police station.

The militants burned all of the addicts' possessions in a pile, including drugs, wallets, knives, rings, lighters, a juice box.

Most of the addicts' families don't know where they are, AP said.

The addicts were stripped and had their heads and face shaved.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid are shaved after arriving at the treatment center.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

"These people are basically being kidnapped for three months and locked up," Mat Southwell, a British technical adviser for drug harm reduction NGOs in Afghanistan who has previously visited Avicenna, told VICE World News.

"They will receive very little medical treatment, and their needs will not be addressed. Once released, they will just start using drugs again."

A drug user detained during a Taliban raid has his face shaved.

A drug user detained during a Taliban raid is shaved.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

The Taliban has a history of intolerance towards drug users, saying that it is strictly against their interpretation of Islam.

Some health workers have said they agree with the militant group's harsh methods.

"We are not in a democracy anymore, this is a dictatorship. And the use of force is the only way to treat these people," Dr. Fazalrabi Mayar, working in a treatment facility, told AP.

Patients wait to have medical checks as they arrive at the detoxification ward.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid go through a medical check as they arrive to the detoxification ward.

Felipe Dana/AP

Afghanistan is one of the world's largest producers of heroin because of its vast poppy fields, and it has also become a significant producer of methamphetamines. 

As a result, addiction has raged across the country.

According to people on the ground, there are an estimated 100,00 to 150,000 heroin injectors in Kabul, Vice News reported. Many also smoke and inject methamphetamine.

 

 

The patients float around the halls like ghosts.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid walk to a shower after arriving at the treatment center.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

Around 700 patients are currently at the hospital, according to AP, and many have mental illnesses.

The outlet said the patients float around the halls like ghosts. Although some say they aren't being fed enough, doctors say hunger is part of the withdrawal process, the outlet said.

Addicts in matching pajamas walk to the detoxification ward.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid walk in line on their way to the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

"It's a brutal place surrounded by armed guards," Mat Southwell told VICE World News.

"It looks like a concentration camp because they shave people's heads and make them wear pyjamas."

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid rest at the detoxification ward.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid rest at the detoxification ward.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

The medical opioids used to wean people off heroin, specifically buprenorphine and methadone, have started to run out, and staff in the hospital have not been paid for months, Vice News reported.

Patients were taken to their rooms at the treatment center.

Drug users detained during a Taliban raid are taken to their room at the detoxification ward.

Felipe Dana/AP Photo

The Taliban have said cracking down on the addicts is just the first step.

"This is just the beginning, later we will go after the farmers, and we will punish them according to (Islamic) Sharia law," lead patrol officer Qari Ghafoor told AP.

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