BRIAN EGAN AND JOCELYN HUTTON With reference to the underlying power ‘drug mules’ to transport drugs across the dynamics of cross-border drug trafficking and the border.”51 Furthermore, Zalmay Barakzai has found death penalty in Malaysia, Hoyle and Harry have that in four border villages in Ghoryan, Afghanistan, found that those facing capital punishment for drug as many as 1,000 children have disappeared since trafficking in Malaysia are disproportionately from 2002 after being persuaded to smuggle heroin the socio-economic margins and are often merely across the Iranian border.52 acting as kingpins. 47 ‘drug-mules’ for more powerful Similarly, Ahmed Shaheed and Faraz Sanei have found that “there is evidence to suggest that drug crimes, and drug prosecutions, disproportionately affect the poor and other vulnerable groups, including members of Iran’s ethnic minorities and foreign nationals, especially Afghans.”48 This becomes particularly concerning when considered alongside the growing international consensus of there being a ‘nexus’ between drug and human trafficking, amidst growing calls for a ‘non-punishment principle.’49 However, Jennifer Chacon’s research has noted that instead of being treated as victims of trafficking and exploitation, the default state response to these individuals is criminalisation. In particular, she has “demonstrated that ultimately the goal of victim protection is overpowered by the goal of prosecuting noncitizen traffickers and using anti-trafficking legislation as a de-facto form of migrant control.”50 Therefore the punitive arm of the sovereign state – seeking to protect its borders – dominates any ancillary concerns surrounding human-trafficking or child exploitation. This is evident in Iran. The human rights charity Reprieve have expressed concern that “there are indicators to suggest that a number of migrant workers facing the death penalty for drug offences may have been victims of human trafficking, who were vulnerable people who were forced to act as Barakzai also reported parents renting out their children to drug-smugglers, and found that an estimated 60 Afghan children over the past 10 years have died from swallowed capsules of heroin which subsequently burst in their stomach. Despite these vulnerabilities, and despite some loosening of the drug-laws, victims of cross-border drug trafficking are still regularly sentenced to death in Iran. Mohammad Ali Zehi, for example, is an Afghan national at imminent risk of execution for his involvement in drug trafficking when a minor, despite the new law ostensibly forbidding execution of those under 18 for ta’zir crimes. Whilst his counsel has argued that he was a minor at time of commission, he was unable to prove this as he is an undocumented migrant in Iran without an official birth certificate from Afghanistan.53 When arrested, Zehi was held in a local police station without access to counsel or his family for two months, with reports that the court relied on confessions obtained from torture to sentence him to death.54 Therefore despite ostensible reform, it is evident that foreign nationals from Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to be executed for drug related offences. This is particularly concerning given the well-documented, multi-faceted and coalesced disadvantages that these individuals face. 7