The Iranian regime has deported more than 700,000 Afghan refugees this year – 600,000 of them since June alone. Many were born in Iran, some have never even set foot in Afghanistan. Now they are being sent back barefoot, hungry, and defenseless into Taliban-controlled territory – without legal procedure, without asylum screening, without any legal basis.
This is not migration. It’s expulsion by force, scale and terror. A clear violation of international law. Iran has signed the relevant UN conventions but fails to uphold them. People with valid visas, academic degrees, and children are dragged from their homes at night, dropped at the border, their documents destroyed.
And Europe? The European Commission recently claimed that Afghans should seek protection in the region – in Iran. But this “regional protection” is an illusion.
Afghan women in particular are hit hardest: they are forced to return to a system that renders them invisible. Without a male guardian, they receive neither shelter nor aid. No documents, no food, no rights. This is not chaos – it is a deliberate political decision.
What we need now:
- Humanitarian visas
- Immediate support for UNHCR and IOM
- Safe pathways out of Iran – not into the hands of the Taliban
We can no longer look the other way. This is a political failure – and a moral one.
Khaarma, TOLO News, AMU TV, Afghanistan International, ATN News and Hasht e Subh have already reported on this.
