Iran plans to deport 2 million Afghan refugees

Iranian police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said in the next six months, some 2 million undocumented foreigners would be deported from Iran.

Speaking to the Iranian news agency Young Journalists Club in an interview on Tuesday, Radan also said security forces and the Interior Ministry were working out measures that would deport "a considerable number of illegal foreigners" over the long term.

When Iranian officials speak of "illegal foreigners," they usually mean migrants from Afghanistan. Iran and Afghanistan share a 900-kilometer (560-mile) long border, parts of which run through inaccessible, high mountain ranges. For over 40 years, Afghans have fled to Iran to escape civil war, poverty, and, now, the Taliban.

"Afghans are cultivated people, but our country cannot receive so many migrants," Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said in an interview with Iran's state news agency on Monday.

He also highlighted the difficulties people in Afghanistan face and pointed out cultural similarities with Iranians.

"We plan to handle these matters in an orderly fashion and without much fuss," he said. "Our priority lies with irregular migrants."

In May, the Interior Ministry announced that some 1.3 million irregular migrants had been deported to Afghanistan in the past 12 months.

UNHCR: Over 4 million Afghans in Iran

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates that nearly 4.5 million Afghan nationals currently live in Iran. According to Iranian news agencies, however, the real number could be as high as 6 million or 8 million.

Many do not have a legal permit, avoiding registration out of fear of being deported. Many also intend to pass through Iran while trying  to reach Europe.

Given their similar languages, Afghan immigrants can easily blend into Iranian society and keep themselves afloat with the support of other undocumented migrants. Many provide cheap labor in agriculture and at construction sites, where most Iranians are unwilling to work.

Meanwhile, many Iranian citizens believe undocumented Afghan workers have flooded the labor market and are a burden on the welfare system. 

A heated debate over the high number of Afghan refugees has been ongoing for months. On a near-daily basis, the media reports on crimes, such as rapes and murders, allegedly perpetrated by refugees, or on the scarcity of basic foodstuffs like flour and eggs, or the infectious diseases for which irregular migrants allegedly require medical care.

Petitions calling for the deportation of Afghan refugees as well as countless hate posts circulate online.

Those who defend Afghan migrants are targeted with hate

People like Iranian journalist and women's rights activist Jila Baniyaghoob, an Afghanistan expert, who speak out against such hostile sentiments and point out migrants' rights or bring up their precarious living conditions can quickly become targets themselves.

"I constantly receive hateful messages and even death threats," she told DW. "They want to silence me."

She is one of 540 journalists, lawyers, artists, doctors and activists who signed a petition calling for solidarity with Afghan migrants last year.

The group openly questions what they say is an organized hate campaign against migrants and warns of the unforeseeable effects such populism can have: "For a long time, this country has suffered from an economic crisis and chronic mismanagement. Since last year, the authorities have blamed problems such as overpriced foods on irregular migrants. Now, they're under pressure to act and deport on a large scale. But they're hardly able to secure the border. Many migrants will return. This problem won't be solved with hate and blame."

Protests and attacks

In the past months, various cities across the country have seen massive protests and arbitrary attacks on Afghan migrants. Nazar Mohammad Nazari, a young man from Afghanistan, told DW that "tempers are flaring." He had hoped for a better life in Iran.

"I actually went back to Afghanistan," he added, explaining that "a few months ago, Iranians and Afghans got into a fight after a wedding and one Iranian was killed. Afterwards, there were arbitrary attacks on Afghan individuals. I didn't feel safe anymore."

Aside from such attacks, migrants are always at risk of being arrested and deported. According to media reports in the past week, Afghan descendants born in Iran, with Iranian papers and little to no knowledge of Afghanistan, are also being deported.

Iran is also building a wall along its northeastern border to Afghanistan, the spot where Afghans cross most. For now, the government is planning a 74-kilometer-long concrete wall, 4 meters (13 feet) high and topped with barbed wire. However, given the length of the shared border, many doubt the wall will reduce the number of irregular border crossings.

This article was originally written in German.