Iran to deport two million Afghans in expulsion programme
Iran is to deport two million Afghan migrants in six months, in one of the largest expulsion programmes in recent history, according to Ahmad-Reza Radan, head of Iran’s national police.
Police have already begun violently detaining migrants and dumping them back across the border of the Taliban-ruled country.
Shops in one province have been ordered not to sell food to Afghans, while videos have gone viral of an “Afghan George Floyd” having his neck knelt on by police officers.
According to the UN, around 4.5 million Afghans live in Iran, with many having fled the country since the takeover of the Taliban in 2021.
In order to prevent more migrants entering the country, Tehran is also building a 13ft-tall wall along a stretch of the 900-km-long border with Afghanistan.
Afghans who had worked in the security forces of the US-backed government told the Telegraph they were terrified of being sent back.
It follows the return of at least 600,000 Afghan refugees from Pakistan since Islamabad launched a crackdown on illegal migrants in October last year.
Mr Radan, referring to Afghan nationals, said: “We are working to deport a significant number of unauthorised foreign nationals whose presence in the country is illegal.”
Iran has been grappling with an economic crisis driven by Western sanctions and the mismanagement of the Islamic regime.
Eskandar Momeni, Iran’s interior minister, said this week: “Afghans are cultivated people, but our country cannot receive so many migrants.
“We plan to handle these matters in an orderly fashion and without much fuss,” he said, referring to the deportations. “Our priority lies with irregular migrants.”
Around 625,000 Afghan migrants left Iran in 2023, according to the Danish Refugee Council. The drastic increase in deportations promised by authorities appears to be linked to Masoud Pezeshkian’s (the new president) pledge to secure the border with Afghanistan during the election campaign.
In one widely-shared video taken last month, a group of police officers can be seen arresting a teenager, with one officer pressing his knee on the Afghan’s neck. Women protest the officers’ actions as the boy is handcuffed, lifted off the ground and shoved into an unmarked car.
The migrant, who was later released, has been nicknamed the “Afghan George Floyd,” with social media users widely circulating remarks made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, following George Floyd’s killing by US police.
The Ayatollah said, “A police officer pressed his knee on the neck of a black man until he died, while other officers watched and did nothing, this is not something new, it is the nature of America.”
In another video, police officers take turns hitting an Afghan who leans against the boot of their patrol vehicle.
هر روز گزارش های تکان دهنده از برخورد وحشیانه و خشونت آمیز پليس ایران با مهاجرین افغان منتشر میشود که در آن پلیس ایران مرتکب نقض گسترده حقوق بشر شده است. متاسفانه شکنجه و آزار مهاجرین افغان در ایران تبدیل به یک رویکرد عمومي شده مردم و دولت با مهاجرین افغان با خشونت رفتار می… pic.twitter.com/8MGo2ktR6U
— Azizullah Sanjar 🇦🇫 (@AzizullahSanjar) July 26, 2024
In some areas, Afghans face severe restrictions: they are banned from buying groceries, renting homes and visiting certain areas. Thousands have had their phone sim cards blocked, while goods are also sold to Afghans at higher prices than to Iranians. Local prosecutors in southern Kerman province have even prohibited bakeries from selling bread to Afghan nationals.
Afghans speaking to The Telegraph have reported being beaten and humiliated by both Iranian police and ordinary Iranians.
“My son went out to buy bread, and we didn’t hear from him for over a week, then he called us from Afghanistan,” said Mr Rahmatullah, an Afghan migrant living in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz.
His 13-year-old son was arrested at a bakery and deported to Afghanistan after spending four days in a refugee camp.
“We couldn’t go to the police to search for him during those days, as we feared they would arrest us too,” he said.
A week later, his cousin from Afghanistan’s western Herat province called to say that Mr Rahmatullah’s son was with him.
Mr Rahmatullah, 46, was a high-ranking police officer under the US-backed government before the Taliban’s return and joined thousands who fled.
“I cannot return to Afghanistan and life here is too difficult – we cannot even go out to buy bread without facing harassment from Iranians,” he said. “My cousin will send my son back to Iran.”
Another Afghan national, living in a city near Tehran for the past two decades, said that “the anti-Afghan attitude” has never been so intense.
“We have legal documents, yet we still cannot go anywhere – some ordinary Iranians sometimes even spit on us for no reason, life has become difficult,” he said.
“There are signs outside parks that say ‘Afghans and dogs are not allowed to enter’ – they claim we’re taking their jobs but no Iranian would do the hard labour that Afghans would do,” he added.
Water rights of the Helmand River
Taliban officials believe that the deportations are linked to a dispute over the water rights of the Helmand River between the two countries.
Iran relies on this water for farmland irrigation in its southeastern regions and has accused the Taliban of restricting the supply by constructing dams.
“We all know the real issue is the water, everything else is just an excuse,” an official from the Taliban’s interior ministry told The Telegraph from Kabul.
“They want more water, and we’re not giving it to them, that’s it,” he said.
“The previous government was giving them more water than Iran was entitled to.”
“There have been discussions with the Iranians to halt the return of Afghans, as the Mujahideen are already struggling to feed millions of impoverished people,” he explained.
“Adding this challenge would make the situation even more difficult,” he said.
Even amid the deportation programme, Afghans continue to hire smugglers to transport them into Iran so they can escape the hardships of life under the Taliban.
While many Afghans remain in Iran and send money back to their families in Afghanistan, some attempt to reach Europe via Turkey.
Samad, who works with smugglers in Herat province, collects Afghans arriving in the city to transport them to the border, earning a commission for each person he sends.
“The number of people fleeing the country is overwhelming, they include children and the elderly, all trying to go and send a piece of bread back home,” he said.
“They are desperate and extremely poor, leaving because if they stay, their families will starve,” he added.
Upon reaching Nimroz province, which borders Iran, Afghan smugglers hand over their charges to their Iranian counterparts. Another route goes through Pakistan.
Many will be held “hostage”, not being allowed to go out to find work, until their families pay the smugglers, who charge up to one hundred million rials (£150) – a month’s wage in Iran.
“Either war kills Afghans or hunger does,” Samad said. “That’s our destiny.”