Iran ramps up deportation of Afghan migrants, expels 3,000 a day

Iran has stepped up its deportation of undocumented Afghan migrants, with up to 3,000 individuals reportedly being sent back to Afghanistan each day. 

According to Iran’s Director General of Foreign Nationals and Migrants of Khorasan Razavi, Hossein Sharafati, more than 3,000 Afghans are detained daily and deported through the Dogharun border following legal procedures.

Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported that Sharafati said on Saturday that undocumented Afghan nationals living in Khorasan province are identified, detained, and subsequently deported via the Dogharun border.

During a recent visit to Taybad city, Sharafati also inspected a 20-hectare plot of land designated for a new camp intended to hold “unauthorized Afghan nationals.” 

This facility, proposed near the Dogharun border in Taybad, is intended to streamline the process of managing and deporting undocumented migrants. 

The steep increase in deportations comes after Tehran recently took a stricter stance over undocumented Afghan migrants, after President Masoud Pezeshkian came into power. 

In September, the Iranian government announced it would deport two million undocumented foreigners over the next six months. When Iranian officials speak of “illegal foreigners,” they usually mean migrants from Afghanistan. 

At the time, Iranian police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said security forces and the Interior Ministry were working out measures that would deport “a considerable number of illegal foreigners” over the long term.

Iran and Afghanistan share a 900-kilometer long border, parts of which run through inaccessible, high mountain ranges. 

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.