Afghan refugees are returning home from the border of Afghanistan with Iran, carrying their children and putting all their worldly possessions in bags. Every day, three thousand Afghans, some of whom were born in Iran, are returning home after failing to live a brighter life. “Refugees are facing a lot of physical and mental torture,” said Abdul Ghani Qazizada, an arrival registration officer in the border town of Islam Kala.
Some have entered Iran illegally and some have been forced to return to their country because their visas have expired. About 90 percent of the Afghans have been deported from Iran, while the rest are returning voluntarily. “They were warned that anyone over the age of 18 must deposit 100 million tomans in a bank or leave Iran within a week,” Qazizada said. These refugees are registered by the Afghan authorities before entering the country and are vetted by the International Organization for Migration. Two thousand Afghani per person has been provided for refugees who are returning to rebuild their lives with their families, but this facility has not been implemented in the case of returning alone.
36-year-old Ramzan Aziji was waiting to register his arrival with his wife and three children. He entered Iran illegally in 2023 by paying $1,220 to a broker. But Afghans have faced increasing hostility over rising unemployment and accusations of crimes in the country under international sanctions. 26-year-old Fazila Qaderi recalled the hardships she and her husband went through in a loan camp near the capital Tehran.
“The security personnel beat us a lot with sticks for six or seven days without making any distinction between men and women”, he said. Her husband’s bones were broken due to the beating. He came to Iran four years ago by paying money to a smuggler in the central-northern province of Qazvin. Abdul Basir, a 29-year-old laborer, said that despite having a valid passport and visa, he was arrested and deported from Iran. “With my passport, I went to the military camp for 10 days”, he said. He said that he was beaten once in the camp to the extent that he was injured.
He also claimed that security personnel tore up Afghani passports or valid Iranian residence permits. So he was deported to Afghanistan without an Afghan passport. Afghan official Qazizada at the border informed that about 70 percent of the refugees were sent back without Iranian documents. At the end of September, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki asked Tehran to help “Afghan refugees who have contributed to the development of Iran”.
Iranian President Massoud Pezhekian said last month that Tehran was returning illegal citizens to the country “in a respectful manner”.
