Iran gave a last warning to millions of Afghan migrants and refugees to exit the country or be arrested after an administration-imposed deadline ended on Sunday. This follows increased national security worries after Iran’s 12-day battle against Israel, in which the United States conducted US air attacks against Iranian nuclear sites.
Humanitarian groups have been alarmed at the mass expulsions, threatening to destabilize Afghanistan further already poverty-stricken and under the control of the Taliban. Iran already shelters approximately 4 million Afghan nationals, many of whom have resided there for generations.
In March, Iran began a campaign asking Afghans who are illegally resident there to return home voluntarily by June 30. More than 700,000 Afghans have left, with more than 230,000 departing in June alone, since the campaign started, as per the International Organization for Migration. The government in Iran says national security rather than ethnicity is behind the crackdown.
“We have always striven to be good hosts, but national security is a priority,” said government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.
But many Afghans say they are being unfairly targeted. “Being born in Iran gives us the feeling of having two homelands,” said Batoul Akbari, a restaurant owner in Tehran. “It’s heartbreaking to see people sent away from the only home they’ve ever known.”
UNHCR says that amid the recent Iran-Israel war, the Afghan deportation rate surged to over 30,000 individuals daily. Arafat Jamal, the agency’s representative in Afghanistan, reported chaotic scenes in border crossings as busloads of returning Afghans came in drained and disoriented.
The UN remains to urge restraint, noting that massive expulsions would likely overburden Afghanistan’s vulnerable infrastructure and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
