The expulsion of Afghan asylum seekers from our country is inhumane and contrary to Iranian culture and morality.
The process of mass arrests and deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran, which began in 1404, has gained increasing and excessive momentum after the 12-day war and the criminal attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran. The newly formed security narrative, citing allegations of the entry of spies through the eastern border, has paved the way for government pressure on the refugees and their mass deportations.
The Organization of the People’s Fadaian of Iran (Majority), emphasizing the universal principles of human rights, has warned against the documented and currently being implemented policy of forced and violent expulsion of Afghan citizens under the name of “illegal immigrants,” and considers it an inhumane process that violates the individual and collective rights of some of the people residing in Iran, and strongly condemns it.
The Afghan community living in Iran, whose second and third generations are now living here, and many of them were born in Iran and have never seen Afghanistan, have been under a lot of government and social pressure over the past decades and have faced many problems and obstacles in their daily lives. Despite living in Iran for decades, they are still deprived of basic civil, administrative and social rights. In most cases, their children do not have the right to education, do not have the right to property, do not have insurance coverage or even access to basic identity documents such as birth certificates and residence cards. Ignoring the educational, health, and identity needs of these citizens has led to the reproduction of poverty, social exclusion, and a cycle of inequality passed from generation to generation.
However, the exploitation and abuse of immigrant workers by capitalists, wherever there is a severe labor shortage and fierce competition for low wages, as well as the acceptance of arduous work and abnormal and unbearable working conditions, constitute one of the reasons for the presence of Afghan immigrants in Iran. Consequently, the migration of Afghan workers between cities and different geographical regions in the country’s economic structure has also been a function of this principle.
This group of people living in Iran has never enjoyed a legal, judicial, administrative, or social status in our country. On the contrary, they have always been victims to humiliation, neglect, and excessive criminalization. This approach is not only related to and limited to the government, but has also been exercised by portions of society at large. For years, governmental and social efforts have been made, particularly to expel them from different provinces, and the publication of maps of “free of Afghans” provinces has become widespread in official and unofficial media. This type of behavior has not only not been prohibited by the state officials but has also been directly and indirectly encouraged and used as a tool to hinder the legal and citizenship rights of asylum seekers who happen to be of the same origin and descent as us Iranians. However, the government does not even recognize Iranian nationality for children whose Iranian mother is married to an Afghan.
For more than half a century, the people of Afghanistan have been in the midst and center of the West’s inhumane and imperialist plans and have remained trapped in the abyss of inhumane and subservient governments. Expelling these suffering human beings from Iran would condemn the vast majority of them to an uncertain and dangerous future, a danger and misery that particularly threatens women and girls who, since the return of Taliban to power, face ever-increasing deprivation and social hardship. Furthermore, Afghan immigrants are part of the social fabric of today’s Iran, and their removal, exclusion, or suppression would not only be immoral and inhumane, but also socially and politically destructive.
Many Iranian immigrants outside Iran’s geographical borders are themselves subject to inhumane discrimination and pressure in the West. The policy of alienating immigrants in the Islamic Republic is similar to the policy and approach that Donald Trump has adopted towards immigrants and “undocumented immigrants” in the United States since his return to power and what we have witnessed in Europe by other right-wing leaders as well.
We call on all campaigners for freedom, democracy, equality, and social justice, and all civic organizations and associations that struggle and strive to guarantee a secure and sustainable universal human rights, to raise their voices in protest against the expulsion of Afghan refugees. We expect all these forces to confront the Iranian Government’s inhumane anti-Afghan social policies with the same intensity that the progressive forces of the world are combating the policies and actions of extreme far-right governments.
Political-Executive Committee of the People’s Fadaian Organization of Iran (Majority)
July 13, 2025
