By Haniya Frotan
Afghans who fled to Iran for safety after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021 say they’re experiencing intensifying harassment and xenophobia since Iran pledged to undertake mass deportations of undocumented migrants.
Iranian police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said in an interview this month that “close to two million illegal foreigners will be deported from Iran” in the next six month. Such a campaign would average out to be more than 80,000 deportations a week.
Afghan migrant Bahara*, 26, has lived in Iran’s capital Tehran for three years since leaving Afghanistan. She fears the crackdown on vulnerable migrants is driving an increase in exploitation from Iranian employers.
Bahara’s boss at a Tehran-based tailor suggested to her that she “become his girlfriend – and enjoy life in Iran”. After rejecting his proposal she was forced to move workplaces and her pay was cut from 9 million tomans (US$213) a month to 7 million (US$166). For security reasons, she did not disclose the name of the shop.
Bahara said the harassment extended beyond the workplace.
“One day, I was sitting in a minibus when a middle-aged Iranian woman demanded I give up my seat. As I was about to protest, another male passenger said, ‘An Afghan dares to object?”
Bahara said in her experience it would be possible for her to be arrested or deported over protesting such treatment, so she had “no choice but to remain silent.”
Before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Bahara worked in theater and cinema in the capital Kabul. Most of her colleagues were able to get visas to France after Kabul’s fall, but she lost her chance to escape due to lacking a passport.
“All my efforts to leave Afghanistan and join my colleagues were in vain. I even went to the airport, but I wasn’t allowed to enter because I didn’t have a passport,” she said.
Bahara tried multiple times to leave Afghanistan through safe and legal avenues, but ultimately said she resorted to donning a burqa and being smuggled into Iran.
Now she struggles with living in constant fear.
“For me, as an Afghan migrant, Tehran is not much different from Taliban-ruled Kabul. Perhaps in Kabul, something would have happened to me by now, but in Tehran, the process is more gradual,” Bahara said.
Fatima*, 31, who lives in Tehran with her mother and brother is experiencing similar challenges in the workplace where her situation is exploited to force her to work long hours for meagre pay.
Three-quarters of her 10 million tomans ($237) a month pay goes towards rent, leaving her and her family with only 3 million for living expenses.
“Existence for migrants also includes days of hunger,” she said.
“One day, I was so weak from hunger that I asked an Iranian girl to buy bread for me. Seven months later, the humiliation from that day still feels fresh.”
The workplace and environment outside the house is always riddled with discrimination and insults, Fatima said.
“Every day, I face unpleasant encounters with people, and I just remain silent.”
Fatima was a government employee before the Taliban’s return and left Afghanistan after its fall. She prefers not to disclose her previous workplace.
Fatima said that her brother is so crippled by fear of deportation and other harassment that he barely leaves the house now.
“The last time my brother came home, he was bleeding from his head and face. Iranians had beaten him so badly that he needed 17 or 18 stitches,” Fatima said.
Her brother was attacked in July, coinciding with protests in District 15 of Tehran, where residents had chanted “Death to Afghanis” in response to claims that an Afghan youth had killed an Iranian.
Following the Taliban’s takeover, Iran saw a significant influx of Afghan migrants.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has estimated that around 4.5 million Afghan nationals currently live in Iran. However, Iranian news agencies have pitched the number as high as 6 million or 8 million.
Their prominent presence in Tehran has intensified domestic tensions, with many Iranian citizens demanding their deportation.
In May, Iran’s Interior Ministry reported that 1.3 million undocumented migrants had been deported to Afghanistan in the past 12 months.
BBC Persian recently reported that at least 3,000 migrants are deported from Iran daily, including those with legal residency.
Both Bahara and Fatima dread returning to Afghanistan, but they feel pushed to the limits of their survival in Iran.
Bahara said that she would not be safe back in Kabul, but also said: “I have been merely surviving for three years, living my life like a purposeless creature [in Tehran].”
Fatima is feeling overwhelmed with how she is treated in Tehran.
“I have faced so much insult and humiliation that I would rather go back to Afghanistan and be killed.”
*Note: Names are changed due to security reasons.
