Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier.

"He was forced to go, to bring food for the family," his mother, Mah Jan, told AFP at her mud home in Ghunjan village.

"We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating," she added, clutching a photo of her son.

Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died last month while trying to cross illegally into Iran from Afghanistan's Herat province, according to officials, when temperatures were around -3C.

With earthquakes and drought compounding a daily struggle to survive in Afghanistan, around half the population will need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the United Nations.

"There was no other way left for me. I thought, let him go to make our life better," said Mah Jan, 50, who requested the family's surname not be........

© Al Monitor