July 9, 2025 — The Iranian government has initiated one of the largest mass deportation campaigns in its modern history, forcibly returning hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants following the recent war with Israel. Using the post-war climate, authorities have cast suspicion on Afghan migrants—accusing them of espionage and branding them as potential spies for Israel—fueling longstanding discrimination against the Afghan community in Iran and exposing them to heightened violence.
More than 1 million Afghan migrants have been deported from Iran since the beginning of 2025, with nearly 600,000 returned since June 1. At least 70% of these individuals were forcibly removed. Alarmingly, children make up approximately 25% of those deported.
“Iran is casting out entire communities—men, women, and children—based on prejudice and politics, to a country where their lives and most basic rights are under immediate threat, due to the lowest economy. “These deportations are an egregious violation of international law. All migrants and refugees, regardless of documentation status, have the right to due process and protection against forced return to danger.”
“For most Afghans, deportation is not a return home—it is a descent into crisis, into a country ravaged by war and repression,” Aban continued. “For Afghan women and girls, it’s even worse. This is not just a deportation—this is a death sentence for their freedom, their education, their futures.”
Iranian officials have used the war to justify a sweeping crackdown, arresting Afghan migrants and other minorities on baseless charges of spying for Israel and accelerating deportations. There have also been reports of state-affiliated media inciting discrimination and violence by labeling Afghans and other minorities as traitors and using dehumanizing language to vilify them.
“What we are witnessing is not just a refugee crisis, it’s a systematic campaign of scapegoating and collective punishment—an attempt to erase an entire population by blaming them for the failures and fears of the state.”
deporting over 1 million people in this short period raises numerous and grave red flags. Mass deportations without individualized review or access to legal remedies violate due process protections under international human rights law. This practice amounts to collective expulsion, which is prohibited under Article 13 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a State Party.
