KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – More than one million Afghan migrants have been expelled from Iran in the last 100 days, including 450,000 from Tehran province, Tehran governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said Saturday.
Speaking at a press conference, Motamedian said the figure includes both voluntary returnees and migrants arrested and deported by security forces.
He called the number of deportations significant, noting that the enrollment of Afghan migrant students in Tehran schools dropped from about 220,000 last year to 80,000 following the expulsions.
Motamedian said that roughly 6,000 classrooms previously used for migrant students are now available to Iranian children, reducing the need for new school construction.
About half of all Afghan migrants in Iran live in Tehran province, he said. The government began identifying undocumented migrants with the start of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration.
Iran hosts one of the world’s largest Afghan migrant populations, estimated at more than five million, both documented and undocumented, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The country has stepped up deportations amid rising regional tensions, including its recent conflict with Israel.
Iranian officials say the campaign targets undocumented migrants, but reports indicate some with valid passports, visas, and temporary residency permits have also been expelled.
A similar deportation campaign is underway in neighboring Pakistan, where over 1.3 million Afghan refugees have been deported in the past two years. Authorities recently announced plans to deport more than one million registered Afghan refugees.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 4 million Afghans have been deported or forced to return from both countries since September 2023, including over 1.5 million so far this year.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called on Iran and Pakistan to halt mass deportations, warning that returnees face severe poverty, unemployment, and security risks in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
