Iran's war on Afghan Refugees

 

 

Iran’s War on Afghan Refugees: An Unfair Scapegoating Strategy

By Wahab Raofi

 

Human beings are members of a whole

In creation of one essence and soul

If one member is afflicted with pain

Other members uneasy will remain

If you have no sympathy for human pain

The name of human you cannot retain

n  Saadi Shirazi, Iranian poet

 

In the aftermath of the 12-day Iran-Israel war, Iranian authorities have launched a quiet campaign of terror — not against an external enemy, but against their own people,” Karen Kramer wrote in The New York Times. What remains largely untold, however, is that the regime’s crackdown falls disproportionately on Afghans residing in Iran.

Much like Nazi Germany, which scapegoated Jews to deflect blame for its own internal failures, the Iranian regime targets the most vulnerable — poor and defenseless Afghans — whether they live legally in Iran or seek refuge from turmoil. This form of collective punishment not only violates fundamental human rights but also serves as a cynical distraction from the regime’s own political and economic mismanagement.

Iran has begun expelling Afghan refugees in large numbers and pledges to deport even more. This followed accusations by some Iranian officials that Afghans had cooperated with Israeli security forces. As the July 6 deadline set by the Iranian government approached, the pace of migrations soared to an average of about 30,000 per day, peaking at more than 50,000 people crossing into Afghanistan in one day.

Iran Human Rights CHRI  reported that more than 1 million Afghan migrants have been deported from Iran since the beginning of 2025, with nearly 600,000 returned since June 1. At least 70% of these individuals were forcibly removed. Alarmingly, children make up approximately 25% of those deported. At least 98 people, including one woman, eight Afghan nationals, 10 Baluch, five Kurdish and an Arab minority were executed in Iran in June 2025.

 According to official sources, eight such executions took place in the first half of 2025. For more than four decades, Iran has hosted over six million Afghans displaced by Afghanistan’s prolonged conflict. Like many refugees around the world, Afghans in Iran settled, started new lives and gradually integrated into Iranian society — contributing to the economy and calling Iran home. Some were even recruited by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to fight alongside Iran’s proxy forces in Syria in support of the Assad regime.

I am not dismissing the possibility that a few isolated individuals may have been recruited by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. However, the Iranian regime's response — resorting to collective punishment of Afghan refugees — is deeply unjust. Even if some individuals were involved, they should be dealt with due process and afforded access to justice, in accordance with international law and the principles outlined in the United Nations charter.

Today Afghans face similar situation: they are blamed for what Jews were blamed for in Germany’s World War I failure. Afghans were not in charge of Iran’s security apparatus nor the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), which failed to detect or prevent Israeli influence within Iran’s clerical establishment. Nor were Afghans responsible for Iran’s air defense systems, which have proven incapable of deterring or countering Israeli air operations.

Abolfazl Hajizadegan, a sociologist in Tehran, said Iran’s government was using Afghans as scapegoats to deflect blame for intelligence failures that enabled Israel to infiltrate widely within Iran.

 

For over four decades, Iran’s leaders have consolidated political power by terrorizing their own citizens and diverting the nation’s vast natural and human resources — not to improve the lives of Iranians, but to build weapons aimed at destroying Israel, threatening Arab neighbors and exporting their sectarian Shiite ideology, thereby destabilizing the entire region.

Afghans who have returned say they have been beaten, dehumanized and abused by Iran security forces.

They were picked up by the police from their places of work or seized on the street and then forced into buses and held in detention sites before being transported to the border. They also face endless demands for bribes to get out of detention centers, onto buses or finally to get across the border.

The returnees, from urban professionals to day laborers, include many who were born in Iran, have never set foot in Afghanistan, and are more attuned to Iranian culture and society than the more draconian rule of the Taliban.

Afghans are now trapped between two repressive Islamic states: one that is expelling them, and another that they are afraid to return to. In Iran, Afghan refugees face escalating hostility and mass deportations. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed a draconian version of Islam that has stripped women of their rights to work and barred girls from education beyond the sixth grade.

Most Afghans fled after the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in 2021, unwilling to live under Taliban rule.

In Iran, Afghan refugees face growing hostility and mass deportations. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed a harsh and repressive version of Islam, stripping half the population — women — of their rights to collaborate with men and banning girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade. Many Afghans fled the country nearly four years ago, after the U.S.-backed government led by Ashraf Ghani collapsed,

Returnees are worried about the lack of education for their daughters, the absence of job opportunities, and — among those who served in the previous government — a deep concern that the Taliban may not honor their promise of amnesty from former Afghan security personnel.

On a recent personal trip to my native Afghanistan, it would be ungracious not to thank the rank-and-file of the Taliban. Despite my clean-shaven face, Western clothing and the fact that I came from the United States, they welcomed me respectfully. Yet this hospitality also weighed heavily on me, as it stood in stark contrast to the repressive policies set by their leaders — policies that suffocate freedom of expression and show no willingness to pursue lasting peace through free and fair elections.

After spending a couple of months in the country, I came to the painful realization that meaningful change remains elusive. And that is why so many Afghans continue to leave their homeland in search of hope elsewhere.

Iran, like any sovereign nation, has the right to protect its borders and determine who may enter or remain within them. However, this does not give the clerical regime the right to violate human rights or scapegoat Afghan refugees for the crises it has created.

Expelling Afghan refugees will not save Iran’s ruling establishment from the consequences of its own destructive policies — namely, squandering the nation’s talent and wealth on exporting its version of Shi’a Islam and obsessively pursuing the goal of erasing Israel from the map.

Afghans are not to blame for Iran's leadership failures, including its inability to unify the country or effectively defend itself against the very adversary it helped manufacture. Forcibly removing Afghans will not make Iran any safer. Iran’s regime is not just scapegoating refugees — it’s repeating one of history’s darkest patterns.

 

#