Afghan Migrants Speak Out: Legal Residents Expelled from Iran
by Fatemeh Hosseini — 16August2024
Iranian police are reportedly arresting and deporting Afghan migrants, even those with legal residency permits. Several Afghan migrants who were recently detained by police despite holding residency visas have spoken out about their experiences. They claim that Iranian officers tore up their documents and swiftly expelled them from the country.
Legal Migrants Expelled
Afghan migrants who have been deported from Iran allege that they were arrested and forcibly expelled from the country despite possessing legal residency documents. Afghan officials at the Herat Foreign Relations Directorate and the Islam Qala border port confirm that Iranian law enforcement often expels individuals who have legally travelled to Iran with visas issued by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political representatives in Afghanistan.
The deported migrants accuse Iranian law enforcement of mistreatment and torture. They question why the Iranian consulates in Afghanistan issue visas and collect fees from people if the Iranian police do not recognize the validity of these visas and Afghan passports.
Migrants’ Experiences
Three young Afghans, Safiullah, Hazrat Gul, and Khalil Ahmad, residents of Herat and Baghlan in Afghanistan, were recently expelled from the Islamic Republic of Iran despite having legal documents. They were arrested by police officers near Tehran in the city of Parand while on their way to a friend’s house for a party. According to the three young men, the officers did not listen to their explanations, threw them into a police car, tore up their identity documents, and after two days, expelled them from the Dogharoon border into Afghanistan.
“After being deported by the Iranian police, I went to the Taliban official in the border town of Islam Qala. After providing him with information, I traveled to Herat and filed a complaint with the Taliban’s Foreign Relations Directorate. I even took my complaint to the Consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Herat, but no one helped me, and my issue was not addressed.”
Safiullah
Safiullah had a three-month Iranian visa and had only spent 22 days of his legal visa time in Iran. He should have been allowed to stay in Iran for another two months and eight days, but he was expelled due to the illegal actions of the Islamic Republic’s law enforcement forces. His two friends, Hazrat Gul and Khalil Ahmad, also claim that their passports were torn up by Iranian police without any questioning, and they were subsequently expelled.
Vahidi, another Afghan caught shares:
“While I was working at an Iranian restaurant, serving people and continuing my legal work with legal documents, I was arrested by two Iranian security officers. After showing them my passport and telling them that I had legal documentation, they paid no attention to my words and told me that the Afghan passport has no validity in Iran, and that I could not continue working or living in Iran.”
Vahidi
Human Rights Violations
Human rights activists in Afghanistan consider the expulsion of Afghan migrants with visas from the Islamic Republic and legal documents a violation of international norms. They say that the Iranian police’s actions have recently become extremely violent.
Abdul Haq Fetrat, an international relations expert and university professor in Kabul, says, “The expulsion of Afghan migrants is a political issue for the Islamic Republic, and it occasionally carries out such actions on a large scale because Tehran wants to divert attention from other issues by focusing on its mistreatment of migrants.”
Iranian Authorities’ Stance
Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran have repeatedly stated that they are seriously pursuing the plan to expel “illegal migrants” from the country. However, in many cases, as highlighted in this report, individuals with legal documents, including passports and visas, are being expelled from Iran. This action contradicts international conventions and existing human rights practices worldwide.
This is a summary of original Radio Zamaneh content crafted with the help of AI, edited by a Radio Zamaneh editor. To read the original article, click here.
