Report on Afghans in Iran

No one supports illegal immigration. But what choices remain when the place you live—no, not “homeland,” because that word implies safety—offers only poverty, unemployment, and repression? When your daughter is banned from attending school, when fascist ideologies dominate, when you’re persecuted for being an ethnic minority, when it takes months to secure an overpriced passport—what path should you take to survive? Pause for a moment and ask yourself: if you were in that situation, what would you do? Again, I’m not legitimizing illegal immigration. But we must acknowledge this: survival sometimes demands choices we never thought we would make.

And what happens when an illegal Afghan immigrant arrives in a country like Iran? When he/she (or his/her family) left decades ago, obtained residency papers in Iran, raised children who knew no other home, and built a life there, only to be told one day: “You must leave”? Is it really that easy to start over? Should deportation be so degrading? Is human dignity not part of Iranian culture, “they said we have the oldest culture in the world”? Afghan immigrants (many of them legal residents) are humiliated and beaten by Iranian, have been denied medical treatment by doctors because of racist mindset, while illegal migrants are deported in the most cruel and degrading ways (They were subjected to physical violence and denied healthy food and water for days in the camps). Is human dignity reserved for a specific skin color or nationality in Iran? Or has the word “humanity” been entirely erased from Iran’s political and cultural vocabulary?

Every country has the right to regulate migration and implement deportation policies, but there are legal standards and principles for doing so, principles that safeguard human dignity. Afghan immigrants in Iran (legal or illegal) are fully aware of the discrimination and mistreatment they will face. Still, many risk it all, just for the hope of earning enough to feed their families and keep their children from going to bed hungry—hopes that are increasingly out of reach in Afghanistan (Currently, there are no adequate services for those who are being deported from Iran. Many of them are left in complete uncertainty with all their properties left in Iran, they don’t know what to do next. There is a severe lack of hygienic and healthcare services, especially for women and children which is necessary. Given the fragile situation in Afghanistan, this crisis must be handled with urgency. Every day, more than 30,000 people are deported from Iran — Starving, homeless, and sweltering under the sun, with small children in need, many of whom suffer from mental health issues and other vulnerabilities. Despite this, the UNHCR has stated that they lack sufficient funding to support every immigrant. And of course, no one has any expectations from the cruel Taliban regime, which is completely incapable of crisis management. Their only concern seems to be how they can ban (more and more) women from life each day.) . Iran’s treatment with Afghan migrants has always been dehumanizing, but things worsened after the Iran-Israel war. Without evidence or justification, the Iranian government labeled Afghan immigrants as Israeli spies—merely to deflect attention and portray internal threats as foreign, thereby fabricating a false image of national unity under its clerical regime.

Yes, there are many international laws designed to protect refugees. But if those laws are powerless in moments of crisis, are they truly effective? Yes, there are principles—but who follows them? When do states care about international law except when it serves their own interests? Where is the accountability when these laws are violated?

Today, international law often feels like nothing more than elegant words on paper. Implementation is rare; violations are frequent—and almost always met with silence. From the genocide in Palestine, to gender apartheid in Afghanistan, from the violent expulsion of Afghan immigrants from Iran in 41-degree heat with physical vilation on women and children, to the war in Ukraine and Russia’s attempts to legitimize terrorist groups—none of it has brought serious international consequences. So, who is responsible for upholding the law? Who is accountable for these crises? Or, to put it simply, how can we compensate these children for the days they have lost? How can we heal their trauma, and with what approach? Everyone bears responsibility for every single violation occurring in any corner of the world, and each of us must take action either financially or becoming their voice. Silence is an indirect endorsement of injustice.