A top Iranian official has reiterated that Tehran will deport all "illegal" migrants, most of whom are Afghan nationals who fled war, persecution, and poverty.
“Everyone who lacks the legal means to remain in Iran will be sent back [to their country] under a specific framework,” Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on October 19, doubling down on comments he made last month that "Afghans and foreign nationals who do not have legal documents" would be returned to their countries.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are said to have migrated across the border since Taliban militants seized power in August 2021 following the hasty departure of international peacekeeping forces. The influx has come at a time when Tehran is already struggling with economic woes sparked by the imposition of drastic international sanctions over its nuclear program.
Taliban officials have said they are seeking the safe return of the refugees, but little movement on the issue has been made to address the situation as more and more people cross the border.
International human rights groups have documented years of violations against Afghan refugees and migrants in Iran, including physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in camps, slave labor, and the separation of families.
But since Vahidi first made his comments in September, the estimated more than 3 million Afghan refugees and migrants in Iran have endured a surge in abuse.
Videos circulating on social media show Iranian mobs attacking the homes of Afghans or tormenting helpless Afghans on the streets.
Vahidi condemned the attacks saying it was "wrong that some people in our country are tormenting Afghans," but the dire economic conditions in Iran, which has been hit hard by years of Western economic sanctions, continues to fuel anger toward the migrants, with the number of Afghans forcefully deported back to their country rising.
Many of them fled their homeland because of fears of Taliban persecution and the rapidly declining economic prospects since the hard-line Islamists returned to power two years ago.
Iran's plans to deport undocumented Afghans also come amid its worsening ties with Afghanistan's de facto Taliban rulers. Taliban militants have engaged in deadly clashes with Iranian border guards in recent months amid a dispute over cross-border water resources.
“If I return to Afghanistan, my life will be in grave danger," Fawad, a former soldier of the now defunct Afghan National Army, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
Two years ago, Fawad, who only gave his first name, reached Iran through [human] smuggling routes after enduring many difficulties.
“I ask the Islamic republic of Iran not to expel us,” he said.
The announcement has also rattled Afghans with legal permission to live and work in Iran.
"I still cannot rent an apartment easily and cannot open a bank account under my name," Mujibullah Raufi, an Afghan refugee in Iran, told Radio Azadi.
“I cannot get a SIM [mobile phone] card under my name and have no prospects of getting a decent job,” he added.
Iran has hosted millions of Afghans for more than four decades but Tehran has often complained of the lack of international aid for hosting Afghans.
More than 70 percent of the 3.6 million Afghans who left their country after the Taliban militants seized back power in August 2021 fled to Iran.
Data show most are educated middle-class Afghans who served in the fallen pro-Western Afghan republic's security forces or civil bureaucracy.