Iran has launched a large-scale campaign of mass deportations and arrests targeting Afghan migrants, following accusations that "undocumented migrants from Afghanistan spied for Israel" and assisted it with missile launches during a 12-day conflict last June, Bloomberg reported. The allegations were broadcast by Iran's official state broadcasting authority, while the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that authorities had arrested a number of Afghans on charges of "espionage and possession of instructional evidence for making drones and explosives".
The United Nations said on Friday that more than one million people have returned to Afghanistan since 1 June, including 627,000 who were deported by the authorities.
"Our teams are on the border receiving and assisting large numbers of exhausted, hungry and terrified people," Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the agency in an email. "The staff and facilities are completely overstretched."
The spying allegations have ignited a wave of violence and harassment targeting the already marginalised Afghan refugee community, which has grown in Iran since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent wars, including the U.S. invasion in 2001.
According to the U.N., about 2.6 million officially registered Afghans live in Iran, in addition to an estimated 500,000 others who are undocumented and considered "illegal" by the Iranian state. Iranian officials estimate the total number of Afghans residing in the country to be around six million people, equivalent to about 7% of the population. They often refer to them as "guests" who can access housing and basic services, at a time when Iran's economy is under pressure from sanctions.
While the Iranian government insists that deportations are limited to Afghans classified as "illegal", the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent research organisation, has received numerous reports of individuals with valid passports and identity documents being targeted, creating a state of panic and fear.
'Devastating consequences'
The United Nations has warned that the deportation campaign will have "devastating consequences" for Afghanistan as well as for the communities and families being displaced, noting this includes the loss of millions of dollars in remittances sent home annually by Afghans working in Iran.
For his part, the prime minister of the Taliban government, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, called on the Iranian authorities to "handle the deportation process with patience and gradually", according to a statement from his office.
This call contrasts with the accounts of several deportees interviewed by Bloomberg, who reported that Iranian authorities were rounding up Afghans from the streets, transferring them to remote detention centres, and then deporting them by bus to the Islam Qala border crossing into Afghanistan's western Herat province.
"Many of them have been away from their homeland for years and have no home or shelter," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, during a visit to the Islam Qala crossing. "Many people are living at or below the poverty line, so this influx will be a huge burden on the country."
An uncertain future
Deportees face the challenge of building a new life in a poor, sanctions-laden Afghanistan that is suffering from multiple crises, including severe food insecurity, water shortages, and an infrastructure devastated by successive wars.
Bloomberg noted that many deportees would be vulnerable to targeting by the Taliban if they had worked for the former Afghan government or for American or European institutions. Girls and women will be denied education beyond the sixth grade and are largely excluded from employment opportunities.
"I feel like I've entered the world's largest prison, even though it's my homeland," Ahmad Saber, a deportee in Herat, told the agency by telephone. "What will happen to the education of my three daughters and their future?".
Last week, London-based Amnesty International called on Iran to immediately stop the "forced displacement" of Afghans, asserting that it violates the international principle prohibiting the return of any person to a country where they face the risk of human rights violations. Amnesty said the expulsion of women and girls to Afghanistan puts them at particular risk due to the Taliban's policy of gender-based persecution.
Research published on Thursday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) showed that Afghans forcibly returned to the Taliban-controlled state last year were subjected to serious human rights violations, including torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest, and threats to their personal security.
The majority of Afghans who flee to Iran belong to the Hazara minority, who, like most Iranians, are Shi'ite Muslims and have faced violent persecution by the Taliban. Due to strong linguistic and religious ties, Iran has been considered a natural haven for them, and it shares a porous border with Afghanistan stretching for about 1,000 kilometres.
However, Iranian authorities impose strict restrictions on the ability of Afghans to integrate, even after decades of residence and starting families in the country. Afghans are often barred from obtaining citizenship unless one parent is an Iranian national. It is difficult for Afghans to enter universities and many professional sectors, with many ending up in temporary jobs or the construction sector.
