December 2022

Iran Situation of Afghan
Refugees

Country of Origin Information

Manuscript completed in November 2022
Neither the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) nor any person acting on behalf of the
EUAA is responsible for the use that might be made of the information contained within thispublication.
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2022
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ISBN: 978-92-9400-795-7 doi: 10.2847/181551

BZ-03-22-153-EN-N© European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), 2022
Cover photo: Meghan Myres, ‘Farewell traveller, may your path be woven with blossoms’[based on Pashto proverb], 2022, Traditional mixed media and digital painting. ©
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. For any use or reproductionof photos or other material that is not under the EUAA copyright, permission must be sought
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EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Acknowledgements
EUAA would like to acknowledge ACCORD, the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin andAsylum Research and Documentation, as the drafter of this report.
The following national asylum and migration departments together with EUAA reviewed thisreport:••Greece, Asylum Processes and Training Department, Greek Asylum Service, Ministryof Migration and Asylum
Denmark, Danish Immigration Service

The review carried out by the mentioned departments, experts or organisations contributes tothe overall quality of the report, but it does not necessarily imply their formal endorsement of
the final report, which is the full responsibility of EUAA.

4IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Contents
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ 4Contents ............................................................................................................................ 5
Disclaimer .......................................................................................................................... 7
Glossary and Abbreviation ................................................................................................. 8
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 8
Methodology.............................................................................................................................................. 10
Defining the terms of reference (ToR).......................................................................... 10
Collecting information........................................................................................................ 10
Sources ........................................................................................................................................................ 10
Quality control ........................................................................................................................11
Structure and use of the report.............................................................................................................11
Map................................................................................................................................... 12
1.

Background ........................................................................................................... 13
1.1. Overview of key refugee inflows from Afghanistan to Iran ..............................................13
1.1.1. Overview of Afghan displacement to Iran.......................................................13
1.2. Legal status of Afghan refugees.................................................................................................141.2.1. Demography and place of residence................................................................14
1.2.2. Laws and policies .....................................................................................................16
1.2.3. Types of legal status ............................................................................................. 20
1.2.4. Restrictions to obtaining legal status .............................................................. 30
1.2.5. Access to Iranian citizenship for Afghan refugees, including
prevelance .............................................................................................................................33
1.3. Access to other civil documentation........................................................................................35
1.3.1. Birth and marriage certificates............................................................................35
1.3.2. Afghan ID documents ............................................................................................36
1.4. Treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran...................................................................................... 37
1.4.1. Social attitudes and treatment of registered, unregistered, andundocumented Afghans, including extent of integration into Iranian society…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37
1.4.2. Treatment by authorities, including since the Taliban takeover in
Afghanistan in August 2021..............................................................................................41
1.4.3. Recruitment of Afghan refugees to fight for Iran in foreign countries .45
5EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

2.

Movements of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees ................................ 50
2.1. Overview ........................................................................................................................................... 50
2.2. Cross-border ties and links to family/social network in Afghanistan ............................51
2.3. Situation at border crossing points...........................................................................................52
2.4. Enforced returns ..............................................................................................................................53
2.5. Voluntary repatriation....................................................................................................................55
2.6. Legal requirements to return to Afghanistan and back to Iran for Afghan refugees……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………56

3.

Border crossings and human smuggling/trafficking of Afghan refugees................ 57

4.

Internal mobility and socio-economic situation of Afghan refugees in Iran ............ 62
4.1. Freedom of movement..................................................................................................................62
4.2. Education ...........................................................................................................................................63
4.3. Employment and livelihoods .......................................................................................................65
4.4. Healthcare ......................................................................................................................................... 67
4.5. Housing, land and property rights ............................................................................................68
4.6. Financial and communications services .................................................................................70
4.6.1. Financial services ....................................................................................................70
4.6.2. Communications services ..................................................................................... 71
4.7. Legal aid and support services ................................................................................................... 71

Annex 1: Bibliography....................................................................................................... 74
Oral sources ............................................................................................................................................... 74
Public sources ........................................................................................................................................... 74
Annex 2: Terms of Reference ......................................................................................... 100

6IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Disclaimer
This report was written according to the EASO COI Report Methodology (June 2019). 1 It isbased on carefully selected sources of information. All sources used are referenced.
The information contained in this report has been researched, evaluated and analysed withutmost care. However, this document does not claim to be exhaustive. If a particular event,person or organisation is not mentioned in the report, this does not mean that the event has
not taken place or that the person or organisation does not exist.
Furthermore, this report is not conclusive as to the determination or merit of any particularapplication for international protection. Terminology used should not be regarded asindicative of a particular legal position.
‘Refugee’, ‘risk’ and similar terminology are used as generic terminology and not in the legal
sense as applied in the EU Asylum Acquis, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967
Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.
Neither EUAA nor any person acting on its behalf may be held responsible for the use which
may be made of the information contained in this report.
On 19 January 2022 the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) became the European Union
Agency for Asylum (EUAA). All references to EASO, EASO products and bodies should beunderstood as references to the EUAA.
The target users are asylum caseworkers, COI researchers, policymakers, anddecision-making authorities.
The first draft of this report was finalised on 21 October 2022. Some additional information
was added during the finalisation of this report in response to feedback received during thequality control process, until 24 November 2022. More information on the reference period forthis report can be found in the methodology section of the Introduction.

1

EUAA, EUAA Country of Origin Information (COI) Report Methodology, June 2019, url

7

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUMGlossary and Abbreviation
Term

Definition

AmayeshRefugee registration exercise

Amayeshcardholders

Registered Afghan refugees

ASA

Alternative Stay Arrangement

BAFIA

Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs

CRP

Comprehensive Regularization Plan

DAFI

Deutsche Akademische Flüchtlingsinitiative Albert Einstein

FNECC

Foreign Nationals Executive Coordination Council

GoI

Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Guest town

Also called guest settlement or guest city; term used to mean
refugee camp; also called mehmanshahr

IRR

Iranian Rial

LMO

Literacy Movement Organisation of IranLP

Laissez-Passer

mohâjer

Muslim involuntary migrant

MoI

Ministry of Interior

8

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

TermDefinition

MoFA

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iran)MoRR

Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (Afghanistan)

NGA

No-go areas

panâhandehmeans ‘refugee’, but carries negative nuances and suggests
poverty

RRP

Refugee Response Plan

9EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide information on the situation of Afghan refugees in
Iran, focusing mainly on the situation of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees in the
country, relevant for international protection status determination, including refugee status
and subsidiary protection.

Methodology
This report is produced in line with the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019) 2 and the EASO
COI Writing and Referencing Style Guide (2019). 3

Defining the terms of reference (ToR)
The Terms of Reference for this report were defined by EUAA based on consultations held
and input received from COI experts in the EUAA COI Specialist Network on Iran, including on
new developments since the Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021.
The terms of reference for this report can be found in Annex 2.
The reference period for this report is 11 October 2020 until 21 October 2022. The drafting
period finished on 21 October 2022, and additional information was added to the report as aresult of the quality review process during the review implementation up until 24 November
2022.

Collecting information
This report is based on publicly available information in electronic and paper-based sources
gathered through desk-based research. This report also contains information from oral
sources with ground-level knowledge of the situation of Afghans in Iran who were interviewed
specifically for this report. For security reasons, oral sources are anonymised unless they havechosen to be named in relation to the organisation represented.

Sources
In accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology, the content of this report relies on a
range of different open-source material which was consulted within the time frame and thescope of the research. The report relies on, amongst others, reports and data from the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). All sources that are used in this report are
outlined in the Bibliography section.

2
3

EUAA, EUAA Country of Origin Information (COI) Report Methodology, June 2019, url
EUAA, EUAA COI Writing and Referencing Guide, June 2019, url

10IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Quality control
The report was reviewed by COI specialists from the countries and organisations listed as
reviewers in the Acknowledgements section and internally by EUAA COI sector. All comments
made by reviewers were taken into consideration and most of them were implemented in the
final draft. Some information was added after the peer review during the finalisation of thereport, until 24 November 2022.

Structure and use of the report
This report describes the situation of Afghan refugees in Iran. Afghans living in Iran can bebroadly divided into four main groups: Amayesh cardholders, Afghan passport holders with
Iranian visas, undocumented Afghan refugees and Afghans registered during headcount
exercises. Sometimes the sources do not differentiate between the four categories. Where
possible the situation for each main group is described. The main focus of this report lies on
the Afghan refugees and not the Afghan passport holders with Iranian visa.
The report consists of five main chapters. The first chapter describes the general backgroundof Afghan refugees in Iran. In the first section, the history of Afghan migration fromAfghanistan to Iran is discussed. The second section of the first chapter provides informationon the legal status, the population and the demography of Afghan refugees in Iran. A third
section describes the treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran. A subsection is dedicated to thegeneral attitude of Iran’s population towards Afghan refugees, including the extent of theirintegration into Iranian society. A second subsection discusses the attitude of the Governmentof Iran towards Afghan refugees, including since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August2021. A third subsection elaborates on the recruitment of Afghan refugees to fight for Iran inforeign countries. The final section of the first chapter describes other civil documentation for
Afghan refugees in Iran.
The second chapter of the report examines the return of registered and unregistered Afghan
refugees to Afghanistan. Separate sections in this second chapter are dedicated to forced andother returns, voluntary repatriation and methods used regarding returns. Other sections
discuss the situation at official border crossing points and legal requirements to return to/reentry between Afghanistan and Iran for Afghan refugees, including the situation in practice.
The third chapter provides information about border crossings and human smuggling ofAfghan refugees into Iran, including the Afghan refugees’ treatment and the prevalence of thisphenomenon.
The fourth chapter provides information about the livelihood opportunities for Afghan
refugees in Iran, according to their legal status. It examines freedom of movement, access to
education, employment, and access to different services such as healthcare, housing, landand property, financial and communication services and access to legal aid.
The fifth chapter of this report examines cross-border ties of Afghans in Iran and their links tofamily and social networks in Afghanistan.
11

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Map

Map 1: Iran (Islamic Republic of), © United Nations.4

4

United Nations, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Map No. 3891 Rev, 4, January 2004, url

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IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

1.

Background

1.1.

Overview of key refugee inflows from Afghanistan
to Iran

1.1.1.

Overview of Afghan displacement to IranAccording to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in August 2022, Iranwas hosting ‘one of the largest and most protracted refugee populations in the world, themajority of whom are Afghan refugees’. 5 While a ‘sizable number of Afghan migrants’ hadalready been present in Iran since the late 19th century, Afghans began to arrive in large
numbers in Iran after the Soviet army occupied Afghanistan in 1979. 6 The occupation
reportedly resulted in 2.9 million Afghans leaving Afghanistan between 1980 and 1989 toenter Iran. 7 In a 2007 article published in the journal Iranian Studies, academics Fariba
Adelkhah and Zuzanna Olszewska explained that according to estimates of the Iranian
government the number of Afghan refugees in Iran until 1991 had risen to three million, while a1992 UNHCR publication stated that the number of Afghans in Iran had amounted to
2.8 million. 8 After the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, ‘1.4 million Afghans
returned from Iran to Afghanistan in 1992’. 9
From 1989 on, Iranian migration policy gradually changed with the end of the Iran-Iraq war in
1988 and the start of the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1989. In 1989, the Bureau for
Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) was created. While early on, the government of
Iran had abstained from ‘drastic expulsion/repatriation plans’,10 in December 1992, a shift
occurred when Iran signed a repatriation agreement with the government of Afghanistan and
UNHCR. 11 The withdrawal of the Soviet army 1989 was followed by a civil war between
different mujahidin factions 12 from 1992 to 1996, and the conquest of large parts of
Afghanistan by Taliban forces. These developments again led to large-scale movements of
Afghans into Iran. 13

UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 1
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url
7
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J. et al., Second-generation Afghans in Iran: Integration, Identity and Return, April 2008, url, p.
48Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 141
9
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J. et al., Second-generation Afghans in Iran: Integration, Identity and Return, April 2008, url, p.
4
10
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url
11
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url; AbbasiShavazi, M. J. et al., Kabul. Return to Afghanistan?, October 2005, url, p. 16
12
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J. et al., Second-generation Afghans in Iran: Integration, Identity and Return, April 2008, url, p.
5
13
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
5

6

13

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUMThe Taliban rule and armed conflicts between opposition groups and Taliban forces between
1994 14 and 2001 again caused major displacement movements, 15 as did the bombing ofAfghanistan, led by the United States, in late 2001. 16 In the aftermath of the collapse of the
Taliban de-facto government in 2001, Mohammad Khatami, then president of Iran, signed asecond repatriation agreement with the Afghan government and UNHCR in 2002. 17 While inearly 2004 around 1.4 million documented refugees were in Iran, this number was reduced to743 856 as of October 2005. 18 As reported in an August 2022 article by the news website
IranWire, 19 other displacement movements from parts of Afghanistan into Iran occurred after
the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan 20 in 2014 21.
After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, again a large number of Afghans
fled to Iran 22 as the security and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan deteriorated. 23 A local
Iranian border guard at the border crossing in Zaranj in October 2021 reportedly stated that
3 000 to 4 000 individuals were trying to enter Iran per day while before the takeover it had
been 1 000 to 2 000 individuals. Only those with valid visa (500 to 600 individuals per day)were allowed to cross. 24

1.2.

Legal status of Afghan refugees

1.2.1.

Demography and place of residence

Referring to the latest available data from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (GoI),
dating from October 2020, UNHCR stated in July 2022 that around 780 000 registered 25
Afghan refugees (Amayesh cardholders) 26 were residing in Iran, alongside some 20 000 Iraqi

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. DIIS, Guests or trash, 2016, url, p. 10; New York Times (The),Who Are the Taliban?, 11 August 2022, url
15
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J. et al., Second-generation Afghans in Iran: Integration, Identity and Return, April 2008, url, p.
4
16
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
17
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url; AbbasiShavazi, M. J. et al., Kabul. Return to Afghanistan?, October 2005, url, p. 18
18
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, pp. 142-143
19
IranWire is a ‚collaborative news website run by professional Iranian journalists in the diaspora and citizen
journalists inside Iran‘. A high number of the journalists who regularly write for IranWire ‘were forced to leave theircountry of birth’. The news website strongly focusses on ‘documenting human rights abuses in Iran, fact-checking
official claims and analyzing government competence’; IranWire, About, n.d., url
20
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
21
USIP, The Rise and Stall of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, November 2016, url, p. 1
22
Netherlands (The), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Algemeen ambtsbericht Iran [Country report Iran], May 2022, url,
p. 99; UN Human Rights Council, Visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran; Report of the Special Rapporteur on thenegative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan [Advanced
Unedited Version], A/HRC/51/33/Add.1, 17 August 2022, url, p. 13
23
UNHCR, Iran at a glance (July 2022), 18 August 2022, url, p. 1
24
AFP, Tausende Afghanen werden täglich an der Grenze zum Iran abgewiesen [Thousands of Afghans are turned
away daily at the border with Iran], 9 October 2021
25
MEI, The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?, 20 September 2021, url
26
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 16
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IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

refugees. Moreover, as of May 2022, some 586 000 Afghan passport-holders with Iranianvisas resided in the country.27
In addition, around 2.1 million undocumented Afghans (including former Amayeshcardholders) 28 were living in Iran as of 2020, 29 while estimates from the second and third
quarter of 2022 put this number at 2.2, 30 2.3, 31 or even 2.6 million. 32 However, there wasfluctuation in the number of undocumented Afghans, and precise figures on arrivals andcircular cross-border flows were unavailable 33 given that Iran lacked a centralised registration
system and the situation near the borders was difficult to verify. 34
Since the Taliban’s takeover of power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the number of Afghan
asylum seekers arriving in Iran increased significantly.35 According to various Iranian
government estimates drawn upon by UNHCR, between 500 000 and 1 000 000 Afghans
arrived in Iran. 36 Most of them were thought to be undocumented. 37
At the same time, UNHCR estimated that 65 % of all newly arriving Afghans were deported by
the Iranian authorities, while smaller numbers returned to Afghanistan voluntarily or travelledonwards to Turkey and the European Union. As of August 2022, the same source estimatedthat around 274 000 new arrivals would remain in Iran by the end of 2022. 38
Of the registered 39 refugees living in Iran (including both Afghans and Iraqis), 96 % were living
in cities, towns and villages alongside the Iranian host community, while the remaining 4 %were living in 20 refugee settlements operated by BAFIA, an agency of the Ministry of Interior(MoI). 40 According to ACAPS, a non-profit provider of humanitarian needs assessments, 55 %of the Afghan population in Iran (including Afghan registered refugees and undocumented)
lived in Tehran, Isfahan and Razavi Khorasan. 41
The majority of the Afghan asylum-seekers arrived since 2021 were located in urban areas
where they were supported by local Afghan residents, while smaller numbers were

UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 1
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 16
29
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 1; IOM, IOM Comprehensive Action Plan For
Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, 8 February 2022, url, p. 830
UNHCR, Iran (Islamic Republic of), last updated 31 August 2022, url
31
ACAPS, Iran: Afghan refugees – Overview, 4 July 2022, url
32
UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3
33
IOM, IOM Comprehensive Action Plan For Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, 8 February 2022, url, p. 8
34
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 8 February 2022, 14 February 2022, url, p. 2
35
ACAPS, Iran: Afghan refugees – Overview, 4 July 2022, url
36
UNHCR Iran, Refugees in Iran, n.d., url
37
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url
38
UNHCR, Iran (Islamic Republic of), last updated 31 August 2022, url
39
MEI, The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?, 20 September 2021, url; UNHCR Iran, Factsheet
January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 1
40
UNHCR Iran, Refugees in Iran, n.d., url
41
MEI, The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?, 20 September 2021, url
27

28

15

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

accommodated on a temporary basis in transit centres. 42 Some Afghan families have beentransferred from a transit centre setting to refugee settlement shelters. 43

1.2.2.

Laws and policies

Iran acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol
on 28 July 1976, with reservations to the Convention’s Article 17 (wage-earning employment),
Article 23 (public relief), Article 24 (labour legislation and social security) and Article 26(freedom of movement). 44 The right to seek political asylum has been incorporated into Iran’s
1979 Constitution 45 and elaborated in the 1963 ‘Regulation relating to Refugees’. 46
According to Article 2(a) of the 1963 Regulation, a person can be identified as a refugee by
virtue of having crossed the border into Iran. The lodging and processing of asylum claims
after crossing the border is specified in a note to Article 2(a): The refugee [informal translation]‘shall present himself to the first border guard station or competent Government official uponentering the Iranian territory.’ The said official [informal translation] ‘shall receive theapplication and refer the refugee to the district border guard. This border guard shall obtain
the required information from the applicant and, through the Provincial Governorate or District
Governorate Office, shall forward the application to the Ministry of Interior.’ 47
Article 4 then specifies that [informal translation] ‘asylum shall be granted if the following
conditions have been established: 1. The application has not been made in bad faith; 2. The
purpose of the application is not to seek employment.’ 48
Moreover, Article 12 of the Regulations provides that [informal translation] ‘a refugee shall not
be forcibly returned to a country where their life or freedom is in danger due to political, racial
or religious reasons or due to their membership of a particular social group’. 49
Roger Zetter, an emeritus professor for refugee studies at the University of Oxford, explainedin a September 2018 report for the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) that the Foreign Nationals
Executive Coordination Council (FNECC), a government entity chaired by Iran’s MoI has overall
responsibility for the arrival, residency, deportation, education, employment, and medical careof foreign nationals. Individual processing of asylum applications shall be conducted by the
FNECC or an FNECC-designated committee. Since the FNECC constitutes a higher-level

42
43

1

UNHCR Iran, Refugees in Iran, n.d., url
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 30 April 2022, 9 May 2022, url, p.

UNHCR Iran, Refugees in Iran, n.d., urlIran, Constitution of December 1979 (amended as of 28 July 1989), 2 June 2021, url, Article 155
46
Iran, ‫[ آﺋﯿﻦ ﻧﺎﻣﮫ ﭘﻨﺎھﻨﺪﮔﺎن‬Regulation relating to Refugees] of 5 December 1963, 27 April 2018, url
47
Iran, ‫[ آﺋﯿﻦ ﻧﺎﻣﮫ ﭘﻨﺎھﻨﺪﮔﺎن‬Regulation relating to Refugees] of 5 December 1963, 27 April 2018, url, Article 2(a) and note
to Article 2(a)48
Iran, ‫[ آﺋﯿﻦ ﻧﺎﻣﮫ ﭘﻨﺎھﻨﺪﮔﺎن‬Regulation relating to Refugees] of 5 December 1963, 27 April 2018, url, Article 4
49
Iran, ‫[ آﺋﯿﻦ ﻧﺎﻣﮫ ﭘﻨﺎھﻨﺪﮔﺎن‬Regulation relating to Refugees] of 5 December 1963, 27 April 2018, url, Article 12
44

45

16

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

council that mainly deals with the development of general policies, refugee affairs are
effectively administered by BAFIA, an agency affiliated to the MoI 50 created in 1989. 51
BAFIA’s responsibilities include the registration of asylum-seekers, individual processing ofasylum applications 52 and the issuance of refugee ID cards (called ‘Amayesh cards’ since2003). 53
From 1978/79 to 1992, the GoI practised an ‘open-door’ policy towards newly arriving
Afghans, 54 granting them refugee status on a prima facie basis. 55 This meant that holding
Afghan citizenship was sufficient for receiving protection in Iran, 56 and most Afghans were
issued ‘blue cards’ indicating the holder’s status as an involuntary migrant (mohâjer; plural:mohâjerin). 57 Blue card holders were granted permanent legal residence in Iran. 58
After 1992, this open-door policy shifted towards a policy that redefined Afghan migrants aspanâhandeh (plural: panâhandegân), 59 a term which, like mohâjer, means ‘refugee’, but
carries negative nuances and suggests poverty.60 From 1993 onwards, only temporary
registration cards were issued to newly arriving or undocumented Afghans 61 and in somecases, issuance of these cards was refused on unclear grounds. 62 Moreover, Afghans were
now required to prove on an individual basis that they had a well-founded fear of persecution
in order to be granted refugee status. 63
Concurrently, in 1992, a first formal repatriation programme for Afghans was established in a
Tripartite Agreement between Iran, Afghanistan and UNHCR.64 From 2001 the GoI intensified
efforts to repatriate Afghans, 65 signing another tripartite agreement with the Afghan
government and UNHCR in 2002 to facilitate the voluntary return of millions of Afghans.66
Since then, voluntary returns of Afghans have been organised on the basis of this tripartite
agreement. 67 Furthermore, in 2003, the GoI approved a new policy document entitled the‘Regulations about accelerating repatriating of Afghans’ which amongst others imposed

Zetter, R., Protection for forcibly displaced Afghan populations in Pakistan and Iran, DRC, September 2018, url,
pp. 59-60
51
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url, p. 8
52
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
53
Zetter, R., Protection for forcibly displaced Afghan populations in Pakistan and Iran, DRC, September 2018, url,
pp. 59-60
54
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, pp. 20-21
55
Yarbakhsh, E., Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh, 2018, url, p. 5
56
Naseh, M. et al., Repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran: a shelter profile study, 2018, url, p. 1
57
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, pp. 20-21
58
Rajaee, B., The Politics of Refugee Policy in Post-Revolutionary Iran, 2000, url, p. 56
59
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, pp. 21-22
60
Yarbakhsh, E., Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh, 2018, url, p. 5
61
Rajaee, B., The Politics of Refugee Policy in Post-Revolutionary Iran, 2000, url, pp. 56-57
62
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 32
63
Naseh, M. et al., Repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran: a shelter profile study, 2018, url, p. 2
64
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 143
65
Yarbakhsh, E., Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh, 2018, url, p. 5
66
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 40
67
Iran, Combined reports (twentieth to twenty seventh) submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 9 of
the ICERD, CERD, CERD/C/IRN/20-27, 22 March 2022, url, para. 950

17

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

restrictions on hiring Afghans without work permits and on the ability of Afghans without
passports and visas to rent housing. 68
New refugee registration exercises (Amayesh in Persian) were conducted by BAFIA in 2001
and 2003. 69 During these exercises, temporary Amayesh cards 70 were issued to Afghans who
had arrived in Iran before 2001 71 and had already been granted residency in Iran on a prima
facie basis. 72 After the 2003 exercise, at the beginning of 2004, there were around 1.4 million
documented Afghan refugees in the country. 73 BAFIA established a process enabling
Amayesh cardholders to renew their cards on an annual basis. 74
The Amayesh system became the sole system for renewing the statuses of registered
Afghans in Iran 75 and the Amayesh card has since been the only valid identity document
proving Afghans’ refugee status. 76 According to the researchers Fariba Adelkhah and Zuzanna
Olszewska, Amayesh exercises were ‘largely intended to facilitate repatriation and refugee
management by standardizing refugee statuses’. 77 For more information on Amayesh
exercises and the rights conferred to Amayesh cardholders, see section 1.2.3. Types of legal
status.
In 2010, the country’s Supreme National Security Council passed a law named the ‘Plan for
Registering Afghan Nationals’ (also known as the ‘Comprehensive Regularization Plan’, CRP).78
Under this scheme, implemented between 2010 and 2012, 79 undocumented Afghans wereallowed to register with the GoI and receive an Afghan passport (‘family passport’) and an
Iranian visa. 80 By July 2012, some 560 000 Afghans had been registered.81 Since then, visas
issued under the CRP have been extended at various intervals. 82 Those who participated in
the 2018 visa extension for family passports have the validity date until 11 March 2023 andthose who participated only in 2016 visa extension had the validity date until May 2021. 83 New
registrations under this scheme were no longer possible. 84
In January 2017 BAFIA launched an exercise called the ‘Headcount of the Undocumented
Foreigners’ (sarshomari-e atbâ’-e fâghed-e madrak). Under this exercise, specific categories
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, pp. 23-24
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
70
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 10
71
Swiss Refugee Council, Iran: Der rechtliche Status von afghanischen Flüchtlingen [The legal status of Afghan
refugees], 4 September 2018, url, p. 4; Norway, Landinfo, Afghan citizens in Iran, 14 March 2011, url, p. 7
72
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 23
73
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
74
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
75
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 34
76
Seddighi, H. et al., Education of Afghan refugee children in Iran: A structured review of policies, 11 August 2022,
url, p. 2; UNHCR, Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees to Support Voluntary Repatriation, Sustainable
Reintegration and Assistance to Host Countries, 2014, url, p. 5
77
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
78
Zetter, R., Protection for forcibly displaced Afghan populations in Pakistan and Iran, DRC, September 2018, url, p.
61
79
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 13
80
UNHCR Iran, Afghan Population Movement Snapshot – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 1
81
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 13
82
UNHCR Iran, Afghan Population Movement Snapshot – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 1
83
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
84
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 14
68

69

18

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

of undocumented Afghans were invited to declare their presence with the authorities. These
categories included: holders of expired Amayesh cards, 85 unregistered spouses of Amayeshcardholders, unregistered spouses of Iranian nationals, unregistered Afghans whose children
were enrolled in Iranian schools, 86 Afghan passport holders with expired Iranian visas, as wellas other groups. 87 By the end of 2017, the GoI had issued headcount slips to over 804 000
undocumented persons (mostly Afghans) who had taken part in the exercise. 88 According to
UNHCR, these paper slips have ‘proven to offer temporary protection to the participants’. 89
Another headcount exercise was launched in November 2018 which specifically focused on
foreign citizens engaged in informal and formal labour. 90
Following the August 2021 Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan and the increased influxof Afghans to Iran, 91 Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) stated that ‘waves of displaced
Afghans’ could not continue arriving in Iran because the country’s capacities were limited.92
Despite a non-return advisory issued by UNHCR in August 2021, 93 there has been an increasing
number of deportations of Afghans during the reference period of this report. 94 For more
information regarding returns to Afghanistan, see section 2. Movements of registered andunregistered Afghan refugees.
The GoI has also strengthened its efforts to tighten controls along its border with Afghanistan,95
essentially closing them for Afghans without passports and visas. 96 At the same time, the visa
renewal process was reportedly made considerably more difficult, with Afghans now required
to return to Afghanistan to have their visas renewed at the Iranian embassy or consulate. 97
Between April and the end of June 2022, the GoI conducted another headcount exercise of
undocumented Afghans, including those who arrived since August 2021.98 For more
information on this headcount, please see section 1.2.3 Types of legal status.

UNHCR, Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees 2018-2019, October 2018, url, p. 28
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 16
87
UNHCR, Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees 2018-2019, October 2018, url, p. 28
88
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet July – September 2020, 30 September 2020, url, p. 3
89
UNHCR, Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees 2018-2019, October 2018, url, p. 28
90
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet July – September 2020, 30 September 2020, url, p. 3
91
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran, Pakistan Call for UNHCR to Act, 31 July 2022, url; Switzerland, SEM, Focus
Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of Afghan Migrants], 30 March
2022, url, p. 20
92
Diplomat (The), As Iran-Taliban Tensions Rise, Afghan Migrants in Tinderbox, 2 May 2022, url
93
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, p. 6
94
UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3; Los Angeles Times, Amid a crackdown, Afghan refugees in Iran fear the ‘unthinkable’:
Being sent back, 16 December 2021, url
95
Los Angeles Times, Amid a crackdown, Afghan refugees in Iran fear the ‘unthinkable’: Being sent back, 16
December 2021, url
96
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 12
97
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
98
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 1
85

86

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EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

1.2.3.
(a)Types of legal status
Amayesh cardholders

In legal terms, the Amayesh card is a temporary residence permit (Foreign Nationals
Temporary Residence Card 99) that ‘effectively serves as a refugee identification document’. It
gives the cardholder the right to remain in the country and access certain benefits. 100 The
rights of Amayesh cardholders are discussed in more detail in section 1.2.3.Types of legal
status.
Although during the 2001 and 2003 Amayesh exercises the GoI issued almost all Amayeshcards without conducting individual processing of asylum applications, Amayesh cardholders
have been treated by BAFIA as de facto refugees. 101 The government considers Afghans who
had already been residing in Iran before 2001 as refugees, provided that they have reregistered at every Amayesh exercise. 102 According to UNHCR, the Amayesh card ‘effectivelytranslates to refugee status’ and ‘provides the holders of the card the protection accorded to
refugees’ under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. 103
The overwhelming majority of Afghans arriving in Iran after the 2003 registration exercise
were not permitted to register for an Amayesh card. 104 The GoI stopped issuing new Amayeshcards after 2007, 105 allowing only renewals of Amayesh cards of previously registered
Afghans. 106 New Amayesh cards have only been issued to newly born Afghan children whoseparents are Amayesh cardholders. 107 Both parents need to have valid Amayesh cards. 108
The Amayesh cards have been issued with varying periods of validity. 109 While initially thevalidity was as short as three months for individuals, 110 in 2011, it was extended to one year for
the first time. 111 As of 2021, Amayesh cards were valid for one year, 112 and cardholders renew
their cards regularly upon expiry of their old card. 113
As of November 2021, UNHCR stated that the GoI was conducting Amayesh renewal
exercises on an annual basis. 114 Each of these exercises has been given a number. 115 The mostrecently completed Amayesh 16 exercise was conducted from 17 May to 21 November 2021. 116
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 35
101
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 34
102
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 8
103
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
104
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 5
105
Swiss Refugee Council, Iran: Der rechtliche Status von afghanischen Flüchtlingen [The legal status of Afghan
refugees], 4 September 2018, url, p. 4
106
Naseh, M. et al., Repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran: a shelter profile study, 2018, url, p. 2
107
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 23
108
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
109
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, pp. 34-35
110
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, April 2007, url, p. 142
111
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 36
112
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 44
113
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 5
114
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet July – September 2021, 9 November 2021, url, p. 2
115
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 34
116
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet October – December 2021, 14 April 2022, url, p. 2
99

100

20

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESThis exercise renewed cards that had been issued during the Amayesh 15 exercise(conducted from July 2020 and February 2021) and had a validity date of 21 June 2021, 117
however they remain/considered valid until end of Amayesh 17 registration (21 November2022). 118 The Amayesh 17 exercise was launched on 11 July 2022 119 and was scheduled to be
conducted over a four-month period, according to BAFIA. 120 Cards issued during Amayesh 17
exercise in 2022 are valid until 21 June 2023. 121
BAFIA runs a database with information on all registered Afghan refugees. 122 In the 2019/2020
Amayesh 14 exercise, BAFIA started to record individuals and households with Amayesh cards
in a new integrated database called SIAM (Integrated Database of Immigrants and Foreign
Nationals). 123 The new BAFIA-SIAM database records individuals and households in a webbased database accessible to all governmental organisations active in the field of foreign
nationals and immigrants. Unlike its predecessor (NAJVA), the new database is unified in thewhole country with a central server and faster, more secure and accurate data processing, as
well as identity verification using biometrics (including fingerprints and iris scanning). During
the Amayesh registration individuals’ biometrics including facial recognition and fingerprints
are also collected simultaneously. 124 More recent information regarding the types of personal
data stored in these databases could not be found within the times constraints of this report.
However, UNHCR was cited as saying in a November 2010 interview with Landinfo that theregistered information included the person’s name, age, address in Iran, the parent’s names,
and the place of origin in Afghanistan. UNHCR also added that the registered data were notalways comparable from one round to another, as the types of registered information varied
between Amayesh registration rounds. 125
Since 2013, the Amayesh registration exercises have been implemented by GoI-designatedprivate institutions called ‘Kefalat centres’. 126 According to a list published in December 2017by the Young Journalists Club (YJC), a state-linked Iranian news agency, 127 there were a totalof 166 Kefalat centres across the country: 128
Locations of Kefalat centres
Province

Number of centres

TehranIsfahan47
24 (including 15 in the city of Isfahan)

Qom

18 (all located in the city of Qom)

UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – March 2021, 31 March 2021, url, p. 2
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
119
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on the launch of registration for Amayesh cards 17 and Hoviat cards 16, 11 July
2022, url; Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
120
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
121International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
122
De Wild, D., Independent Review Cash Based Programming in Iran, June 2018, url, p. 4
123
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January 2020, 1 January 2020, url
124International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
125
Norway, Landinfo, Afghan citizens in Iran, 14 March 2011, url, p. 8
126
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
127
YJC, About Us, n.d., url
128
YJC, ‫ اﺷﺘﻐﺎل و اﻗﺎﻣﺖ اﺗﺒﺎع ﺧﺎرﺟﯽ ﺳﺮاﺳﺮ ﮐﺸﻮر‬،‫[ آدرس دﻓﺎﺗﺮ ﮐﻔﺎﻟﺖ‬Adresses of Kefalat, employment and foreigner residence
offices across the country], 16 December 2017, url
117

118

21

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Razavi Khorasan
Fars

17 (all located in the city of Mashhad)
14 (including 11 in the city of Shiraz)

KermanAlborzMarkazi

10 (including 7 in the city of Kerman)
10
5

Yazd
SemnanQazvinGolestanSouth Khorasan
Bushehr

5
5
4
3
2
2

Figure 1: Overview of numbers of Kefalat centres by province, based on YJC data 129

The Kefalat centres collect the documents and receipts that are required for the renewal of
Amayesh cards as well as for the issuance of temporary work permits. As far as UNHCR isaware, only Afghans who have previously been registered in the Amayesh database (with the
exception of children of Amayesh cardholders) were permitted to take part in subsequent
Amayesh re-registration exercises. 130
In order to re-register and renew Amayesh cards, eligible Afghan heads of household need tocontact or approach a Kefalat centre to obtain an appointment 131 and all family members must
approach Kefalat centres with required documents on the appointment date. All ‘refugees’
above ten years old are required to undergo the biometric registration. Biometric registration
is used for identification and verification purposes. 132 If there is no Kefalat centre in theirprovince, they need to approach the local BAFIA office. According to BAFIA, holders of the
Amayesh cards issued during the Amayesh 16 exercise would be notified by phone or SMS. 133
If the family has a new member (due to childbirth or marriage) or has lost a member (due tomarriage, divorce, death, or departure from Iran), the Kefalat centre must be notified before an
appointment is set. In order to obtain an appointment sheet, only the household head shouldrefer to the Kefalat centre, bringing the Amayesh cards of all family members (except inTehran province, where appointments are arranged through a website). 134
BAFIA informed that applicants for the 2022 Amayesh 17 exercise were required to bring thefollowing to the appointment: the Amayesh 16 cards of all family members, the appointment
sheet, a bank card to pay the fees, a housing contract showing the exact address and postal
code, as well as a water bill (or, in the absence of a water bill, a gas, electricity or phone bill)
for address verification, a (health) insurance document, a passport (including expired blank

YJC, ‫ اﺷﺘﻐﺎل و اﻗﺎﻣﺖ اﺗﺒﺎع ﺧﺎرﺟﯽ ﺳﺮاﺳﺮ ﮐﺸﻮر‬،‫[ آدرس دﻓﺎﺗﺮ ﮐﻔﺎﻟﺖ‬Adresses of Kefalat, employment and foreigner residence
offices across the country], 16 December 2017, url
130
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
131
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet April – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 2
132
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
133
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
134
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
129

22

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

passport 135) or tazkera136 issued by the Afghan authorities that proves the holder’s identity(unless this document has already been presented at the Amayesh 16 exercise), and a COVID19 vaccination card (not mandatory 137). 138 Prior to the starting date of registration, eligible
households must report changes to BAFIA (including new-borns with birth certificates,
marriage of the children with marriage contract together with pre-marital tests documents,
death of a family member with death certificate, divorce with divorce certificate or court order,
absence or departure of the head of family or any other family member with documentation ofabsence, missing ID card or LP). Settlement residents shall provide an ‘introduction letter’ fromthe settlement authority. 139
BAFIA stated that after handing in all these documents, paying the fees and taking a photoand fingerprinting, the Amayesh cards would be handed to the applicant or sent by mail to theapplicant’s address. 140 If the payment of the application fee is done at the registration centre
no receipt is required; if the payment is done at the bank, the payment receipt is required. 141
According to a January 2022 UNHCR report, Amayesh card renewal fees constituted 8 % of
Afghans’ average annual income. 142 In addition, payment of a municipal tax fee was usuallyrequired, the amount of which is set by each city. Exemptions from the municipal tax fee
applied for families with members with a disability or incurable disease, female-headed
families with no son older than 18, families with a male head of family older than 65 with noson above the age of 18, as well as women without families. 143 According to a fee tablerepublished by the Iranian news website Shahraranews, the total fees charged during the
Amayesh 17 exercise were as follows:
Total fees charged during the Amayesh 17 exercise
HouseholdsizeSingle person
2 persons
3 persons
4 persons
5 personsFee
4 225 000 rials (EUR 100) and 1 875 000 rials if exemptedfrom municipal tax (EUR 44)
6 750 000 rials (EUR 161) and 3 750 000 rials if exemptedfrom municipal tax (EUR 89)
9 125 000 rials (EUR 217) and 5 625 000 rials if exemptedfrom municipal tax (EUR 134)
11 500 000 rials (EUR 274) and 7 500 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 179)
13 625 000 rials (EUR 325) and 9 375 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 223)

International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
A tazkera is an ID document for Afghan nationals and serves as proof of Afghan citizenship. Norway, Landinfo,
Afghanistan: Tazkera, passports and other ID documents, 22 May 2019, url, p. 5
137
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
138
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
139International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
140
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
141International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
142
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
143
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
135

136

23

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

6 persons
7 persons
8 persons
9 persons10 persons

15 750 000 rials (EUR 375) and 11 250 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 226)
17 625 000 rials (EUR 420) and 13 125 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 313)
19 500 000 rials (EUR 465) and 15 000 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 358)
21 375 000 rials (EUR 510) and 16 875 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 402)
23 250 000 rials (EUR 555) and 18 750 000 rials if
exempted from municipal tax (EUR 447)

Figure 2: Overview of total fees in rial (including their equivalent in Euro 144) charged during the Amayesh 17
exercise, based on information from Shahraranews 145

In case a Amayesh card is lost or damaged, it must be reported to BAFIA/Kefalat centres prior
to registration to receive an LP ( laissez-passer) specifying changes and updates in theirinformation (Barge-Eslah-va-Taqiraat in Farsi), for those who have lost their valid Amayeshcards (missing Amayesh cards) and received an ALP to participate in the next round of
Amayesh. 146
A cardholder who fails to renew his or her Amayesh card loses refugee status 147 and thus may
no longer be able to access services. 148 Moreover, he or she faces deportation as an
undocumented person. 149 Likewise, crossing the Iran’s borders irregularly leads to the
Amayesh card being cancelled, followed by deportation. 150 However, some former Amayeshcardholders who had not taken part in previous re-registration exercises were allowed to reregister during the Amayesh exercises held in 2019/2020 (Amayesh 14), 151 2020/2021(Amayesh 15) 152 and in 2022 (Amayesh 17). In the 2022 Amayesh 17 exercise, holders of
Amayesh cards issued during the Amayesh exercises 10 to 15 153 who had not renewed theircards in subsequent exercises were allowed to renew their cards. These persons needed toshow that they had not exited Iran and had no judicial record booked against them. 154 BAFIA
informed in this context that former cardholders who were unable to take part in the Amayesh
16 exercise first had to refer to BAFIA to change their expired Amayesh card into a valid travel
paper (barge-ye taradod) in order to become eligible to participate in the Amayesh 17
exercise. 155 UNHCR stated that renewal applications from former Amayesh cardholders were

Exchange rate from European Commission, Exchange rate (InforEuro), n.d., url, accessed on 24 November 2022
Shahraranews, ‫ﺟﺪول‬+ ‫ اﺗﺒﺎع ﺧﺎرﺟﯽ اﻋﻼم ﺷﺪ‬۱۶ ‫ و ھﻮﯾﺖ‬۱۷ ‫[ ﺗﻌﺮﻓﮫ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Tariffs for Amayesh 17 and Hoviat 16 cards forforeign nationals has been announced + table], 19 July 2022, url
146International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
147
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 5
148
UNHCR Iran, Announcement on Amayesh 16 Registration, 18 July 2021, url
149
HRW, Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights, November 2013, url, p. 6;
UNHCR Iran, Announcement on Amayesh 16 Registration, 18 July 2021, url
150
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
151
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – March 2020, 31 March 2020, url, p. 2
152
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 44
153
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
154
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement: For the attention of expired Amayesh/Hoviat cardholders, 11 September
2022, url; Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
155
Diaran, ‫ و ﺻﺪور ﭘﺮواﻧﮫ ﮐﺎر‬۱۷ ‫[ ﮐﺎرت آﻣﺎﯾﺶ‬Amayesh card 17 and issuance of work permits], 25 July 2022, url
144

145

24

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

to be assessed by BAFIA case by case. 156 Moreover, in the Amayesh 15 exercise, hitherto
undocumented spouses and family members of Amayesh cardholders were reportedly alsoable to register as well. 157 In Amayesh 16 only those who missed two previous rounds were
eligible to participate. In Amayesh 17 (2022) holders of Amayesh 10 to 15 who have not beenable to participate in previous rounds due to justifiable reasons and having a written
commitment for regular participation in the future Amayesh rounds, as long as they do nothave an exit record or a court order on deportation are also eligible to register and review
their Amayesh cards. 158 During the renewal process, the old Amayesh card is collected, and a
new card is issued valid for 1 year. 159
Rights and obligations of Amayesh cardholders
There is no legal document formally defining the rights or obligations of Afghans with
Amayesh status. Amayesh cards effectively grant the holders temporary residency in theirprovince of registration during the validity period. However, Amayesh cardholders must obtain
permission for any travel outside the province in which there are registered. Afghans with
expired Amayesh cards, as well as holders of valid Amayesh cards who travel outside theirprovinces of registration without permission are at risk of being arrested, detained, anddeported. 160 Attempts to cross the border from Afghanistan into Iran through irregularchannels result in the cancellation of the Amayesh card and deportation to Afghanistan. 161
The rights conferred to Amayesh cardholders also include access to education, healthcare,and health insurance. 162 A policy change in June 2021 also formalised Amayesh holders’access to banking services, including debit cards. 163 For more information on these rights,
please refer to the respective subsections of section 4. Internal mobility and socio-economic
situation of Afghan refugees in Iran.
Amayesh cards also allow holders to apply for temporary work permits 164 and to findemployment in predefined fields if a work permit is granted. Meanwhile, persons with
Amayesh status are not permitted to obtain a driving licence (including for motorcycles) 165
unless they have a family member in need of intensive medical care, e.g. a dialysis patient.
According to the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV), a Tehran-based
NGO, in such cases the cardholder needs to obtain a letter from the State Welfare
Organisation of Iran (Behzisti) and approach the nearest BAFIA office to obtain a second letter

UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement: For the attention of expired Amayesh/Hoviat cardholders, 11 September
2022, url
157
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 44
158
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
159
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
160
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
161
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url; Mielke, K. et al., Figurations of
Displacement in and beyond Pakistan, TRAFIG working paper no. 7, August 2021, url, p. 26
162
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
163
UNHCR, Iran policy change gives refugees access to banking services, 8 June 2021, url
164
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet October – December 2021, 14 April 2022, url, p. 2
165
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
156

25

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

and then refer to the Migration Police. A driving license for foreign nationals is the same as theone issued for Iranians, except that it is only valid for one year. 166(b)

Afghan passport holders with Iranian visas

Only Afghans with valid passports and visas are able to enter Iran legally through former
border crossings. 167 According to UNHCR, as of June 2021, some 586 000 Afghan passport
holders resided in Iran. These included around 275 000 Afghans with so-called ‘family
passports’ and 311 000 holders of Afghan passports with valid visas 168 (e.g., student orbusiness visas). 169 As of May 2021, family passport and visa holders seeking to renew theirstatus first needed to extend their family passport at an Afghan consular department in Iranand then renew their Iranian visa at a local Kefalat centre. 170
Holders of passports and visas enjoy certain benefits not granted to Amayesh cardholders,
including the right to obtain a driving license, broader access to jobs, access to university
education, and greater freedom of movement inside Iran. 171 Amayesh cardholders wishing to
be awarded these rights can opt to renounce their refugee status and instead apply for a
student or work visa through the Alternative Stay Arrangement (ASA), 172 a scheme introducedby the GoI in 2011. 173 Different types of visas (e.g., work, student, visas) have been issued withdifferent validity periods and at different cost. 174 As of April 2022, Al Jazeera reported thatvisas to Iran could cost between USD 87 and USD 130 and were issued by the GoI for a
maximum period of three months. 175 Visa extensions were made at the discretion of the Iranianauthorities 176 and involved separate fees. 177 In the case of work visas, as of March 2018
Amayesh cardholders renouncing their refugee status through the ASA were able to submit
applications both for first-time visas and extensions without leaving Iran. According to aninternational NGO interviewed by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) in March
2018, the following was required when applying for a work visa for the first time: the Amayeshcards and valid passports of all family members, a completed application form, and payment ofa fee. 178 For information regarding the issuance of student visas, please see section
4.2. Education.
However, since the August 2021 Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan, the GoI hasreportedly made the visa renewal process more difficult. In order to extend visas that in thepast could be renewed in Iran, Afghans were now required to travel to Afghanistan,179 where
ODVV, Human Rights Developments in Iran, Newsletter No. 35, June 2022, url, p. 4
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 22 – 28 February 2022, 8 March
2022, url, p. 1; HRW, World Report 2022 - Iran, 13 January 2022, url
168
UNHCR Iran, Afghan Population Movement Snapshot – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 1
169
Netherlands (The), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Algemeen ambtsbericht Iran [Country report Iran], May 2022, url, p.
102
170
UNHCR, Help Iran: Deadline to extend family visas- Friday 21 May 2021, 19 May 2021, url
171
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
172
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, pp. 13-14
173
UNHCR, Health, education, and livelihoods in the Islamic Republic of Iran, September 2013, url, p. 3
174
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 14
175
Zia, H., I am now one of millions of Afghan refugees [Opinion], Al Jazeera,16 April 2022, url
176
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 14
177
Zia, H., I am now one of millions of Afghan refugees [Opinion], Al Jazeera,16 April 2022, url
178
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 15
179
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
166
167

26

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

the Iranian consulate is active and open for visa application. 180 Meanwhile, UNHCR informedthat as of March 2022, extensions of entry, tourist, pilgrimage and family reunification visas
could be obtained at Kefalat centres in Iran provided that the visa holder had applied for an
appointment through a centralised Kefalat centres appointment website at least five days
before the expiry date of their visa. 181
Reports from 2022 mentioned cases of Afghans who were arrested and detained despite
having valid Iranian visas. 182
Rights and obligations of Afghan passport holders with Iranian visas
Unlike Amayesh cardholders, holders of Afghan passports with Iranian visas can obtain adriving licence. Moreover, they have more access to jobs and greater freedom of movement
within the country, as well as access to higher education at Iranian universities. 183 For more
information, please refer to the subsections of section 4. Internal mobility and socio-economic
situation of Afghan refugees in Iran.
(c)

Undocumented Afghans‘Undocumented Afghans’ is a term used to describe a variety of groups, including persons
who lost refugee status (Amayesh) for various reasons; those with invalid passports and visas,
those who hold some type of document (e.g. an Afghan tazkera) but do not have legal
residency in Iran; and those who do not have any type of document. 184 Undocumented
Afghans who never possessed legal documents may have lived in Iran for decades or havearrived recently. 185
In 2020, some 2.1 million undocumented Afghans (including former Amayesh cardholders) 186
were estimated to live in Iran. From August 2021 onwards, there has been a constant influx of
Afghans to the country, predominantly through irregular channels. 187 Estimates from thesecond and third quarter of 2022 put the number of undocumented Afghans at 2.2, 188 2.3, 189or even 2.6 million. 190 However, the number of undocumented Afghans fluctuates, and precise
figures on arrivals and circular cross-border flows were unavailable. 191
Undocumented immigration is addressed in the 1931 ‘Act on the Entry and Residence ofForeign Nationals in Iran’. According to its Article 15(3), ‘anyone who deliberately enters Iranwithout holding the required documents and permits, as well as anyone who enters theInternational organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on visa extension, 18 March 2022, url
182
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 31;
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url
183
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
184
UNHCR Iran, Afghan Population Movement Snapshot – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 1
185
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
186
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 16
187
IOM, IOM Comprehensive Action Plan For Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, 8 February 2022, url, p. 8
188
UNHCR, Iran (Islamic Republic of), last updated 31 August 2022, url
189
ACAPS, Iran: Afghan refugees – Overview, 4 July 2022, url
190
UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3
191
IOM, IOM Comprehensive Action Plan For Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, 8 February 2022, url, p. 8
180
181

27

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

country through unauthorised roads and forbidden borders shall be punished withimprisonment of three months up to one year and/or a fine unless his/her crime is subject tolaws that stipulate a harsher punishment’. Article 15(5) provides the same punishment for ‘any
foreign national who hides in order to avoid deportation or re-enters Iran without permission
after having been expelled from the country’. 192
The GoI, through BAFIA, is responsible for registering asylum-seekers and conducting
individual processing of asylum applications, as dictated by Article 5 of the 1963 ‘Regulation
relating to Refugees’. 193 Thus, UNHCR, which in Iran is primarily concerned with Amayeshcardholders, does not have the to accept asylum applications or decide on asylum claims. 194
However, the organisation states that it may consider undocumented Afghans as ‘other’people of concern (i.e. outside the primary group of concern). 195 Therefore, UNHCR collects
data on both newly arrived and long-term Afghan residents in Iran for the purpose ofcounselling and advocacy ‘on behalf of all persons in need of international protection’196 andhas been advocating for a full-fledged asylum mechanism to identify protection needs at theindividual level. 197
Following headcount exercises conducted in 2017 198 and 2018, 199 the GoI conducted a newheadcount of all undocumented Afghans between April 2022 the end of June 2022, andincluded those who arrived in Iran since the Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan inAugust 2021. 200 This exercise involved the following: 1) a ‘re-headcount’ of Afghans withheadcount slips issued in 2017, 2) the registration of undocumented Afghans who had nottaken part in the 2017 headcount but were in possession of a ‘Vaccination Introduction Letter’issued by a Kefalat centre, and 3) the registration of undocumented foreign citizens who had
not taken part in any headcount or vaccination scheme. Those wishing to participate in theexercise had to visit a Kefalat centre (if they held a vaccination certificate) or otherwise a
Pishkhan centre that was able to process national ID cards. 201 Pishkhan are local service
centres set up by Iran's National Organization for Civil Registration (NOCR) in cooperation withprivate actors. 202 Amongst others, they are responsible for civil registration and the issuance,
renewal, and replacement of health insurance documents. 203 The official fees for registrationand participation in the 2022 headcount were 310 000 rials per person at a Kefalat centre
and 270 000 rials at a Pishkhan centre. 204

Iran, ‫[ ﻗﺎﻧﻮن راﺟﻊ ﺑﮫ ورود و اﻗﺎﻣﺖ اﺗﺒﺎع ﺧﺎرﺟﮫ در اﯾﺮان‬Act on the Entry and Residence of Foreign Nationals in Iran], 10 May
1931, archived page from 14 May 2021, url, Article 15 (3), (5)193
UNHCR, Help Iran: How can I seek asylum in Iran?, n.d., url
194
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
195
UNHCR Iran, Afghan Population Movement Snapshot – June 2021, 30 June 2021, url, p. 1
196
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
197
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, pp. 1-2
198
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 16
199
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet July – September 2020, 30 September 2020, url, p. 3
200
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 1
201
UNHCR, Help Iran: Headcount Exercise, n.d., url
202
Norway, Landinfo, Report Iran - Passports, ID and civil status documents, 5 January 2021 url, p. 23
203
MyPishkhan, ‫[ آﺷﻨﺎﯾﯽ ﺑﺎ وظﺎﯾﻒ و ﺧﺪﻣﺎت دﻓﺎﺗﺮ ﭘﯿﺸﺨﻮان دوﻟﺖ‬Presentation of the responsibilities and services of thegovernment’s Pishkhan offices], n.d., url
204
UNHCR, Help Iran: To the attention of undocumented Afghan nationals, 31 May 2022, url
192

28

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

According to BAFIA figures quoted by UNHCR, some 2.2 million Afghans were registeredduring this exercise and were issued headcount laissez-passers with a validity date of
22 October 2022. 205
Rights and obligations of undocumented Afghans
Undocumented Afghans have limited access to rights and services compared to Amayeshcardholders and Afghan passport holders with Iranian visas. 206 Besides being at risk of arrestand deportation, 207 they are not permitted to open bank accounts, purchase SIM cards 208 or
obtain health insurance in Iran. However, primary healthcare is available free of charge
regardless of documentation status. 209 Hospital treatments are also accessible, but at higher
fees than for Iranian nationals. 210 For more information on healthcare access for
undocumented Afghans, see section 4.4 Healthcare.
Undocumented Afghans cannot apply for temporary work permits that allow holders access toregular employment, 211 which makes them particularly vulnerable for various forms of
exploitation. 212 For more information regarding the situation of Afghans with respect to labour,see section 4.3 Employment and livelihoods.
Since 2015, Iran started to allow school-aged children to attend both primary and secondary
schools irrespective of their documentation status 213 and – since 2016 – without charging
refugee-specific tuition fees. 214 In order to enrol in schools, undocumented Afghan children
need a special education protection paper (‘blue card’) issued by BAFIA. It exclusively permits
enrolment in schools in the province of issuance. This document is valid for one year andcontains personal information as declared by the applicant. 215 For more information regarding
the situation of Afghans with respect to education, see section 4.2 Education.
(d)Afghans registered during headcount exercises

According to an international NGO interviewed by the Swedish Migration Agency in Tehran inNovember 2017, headcount slips issued during the 2017 headcount exercise offeredtemporary protection from deportation. 216 UNHCR noted that laissez-passers issued during the2022 headcount exercise also seemed to provide holders temporary protection against

UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 1
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
207
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
208
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
209
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url;
Tehran Times, Health insurance provided for 170,000 refugees, 11 February 2022, url
210
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
211
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
212
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
213
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
214
UNHCR, Iran at a Glance (August 2022), 18 September 2022, url
215
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
216
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 16
205

206

29

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

deportation. 217 However, there were some reported instances of Afghans being allegedly
deported despite having obtained such laissez-passers. 218
According to a BAFIA notification quoted by UNHCR, Afghans who were registered during the2022 headcount were only allowed to stay within their registered province. BAFIA has warned
that any travel to other areas and provinces would ‘result in the deportation of the concerned
individuals through legal procedures’.219

1.2.4.
(a)Restrictions to obtaining legal status
Refugee status

In recent years, levels of participation in Amayesh renewal exercises decreased, whichaccording to UNHCR indicated that refugees faced greater difficulties in affording the renewal
fees. 220 According to NGO sources consulted by the USDOS in 2021, these fees haveincreased. 221 Some 26 % of the 585 000 undocumented Afghans in Iran who have beenaddressed in the United Nations’ 2022 Refugee Response Plan (RRP) were former Amayeshcardholders who had lost their Amayesh status. This loss of status could be attributed tohouseholds prioritising other expenses over the renewal of their cards. UNHCR stated that
Amayesh renewal fees constituted 8 % of Afghan refugees' average annual income. 222
With regard to individual processing of asylum applications, UNHCR noted that the GoI did notassess the international protection needs of most Afghans arriving in Iran. 223 Amnesty
International (AI) reported that of a total of 67 documented cases of Afghans who were forcibly
returned between April 2021 and May 2022, there was not a single case in which the Iranianauthorities assessed a person’s individual circumstances and protection needs. The same
source noted that numerous pushbacks at the border prevented Afghans from lodging a claim
for international protection in Iran. 224 Moreover, the Iranian authorities reportedly did notinform Afghans who were apprehended after crossing the border about their right to seek
asylum. Concerns about violent treatment by the security forces made detained Afghans
afraid of speaking and asking for international protection. 225

UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 1
Salaam Times, Promising residence permits, Iran lures Afghans for deportation instead, 9 June 2022, url
219
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement: For the attention of undocumented Afghan nationals who participated in theheadcount exercise, 3 August 2022, url
220
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
221
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 44
222
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
223
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan situation update – 21 February 2022, 27 February 2022, url, p. 3
224
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, pp.
5-6, 27, 29
225
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p.
43
217

218

30

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESUNHCR noted that Iran lacked a ‘functioning asylum system’. 226 Although BAFIA is responsible
for examining asylum requests, 227 its asylum procedures were described by UNHCR as being‘not systematic, transparent, and accessible to all asylum seekers’. 228
The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) noted in March 2022 that the GoI had been
pursuing a restrictive policy with regard to granting refugee status under the Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees. 229 According to UNHCR, the international protection needsof most Afghans arriving in Iran were not assessed. 230 After the Taliban’s announcement of a‘general amnesty’ on 17 August 2021 for former employees of the government of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan, 231 the GoI stated that it had not found any convincing reports aboutthe ‘existence of systematic, pre-mediated and imminent risk of irreparable harm and grave
human rights violations’ in Afghanistan. The GoI declared that none of the Afghans who had
arrived since August 2021 and were subsequently deported had applied for asylum based on
the existing Iranian laws. According to the GoI, only 505 Afghans arriving after the Taliban
takeover had applied for asylum in Iran. 232
Several policies implemented since the early 2000s have also reshaped the status of
Afghans 233 in domains other than protection and residency status. In 2007, implementing a
policy adopted in 2001, 234 the Supreme National Security Council of Iran designated someprovinces – or cities within a province – as No-Go Areas (NGAs) for foreigners, including
Afghan refugees. 235 The legal basis for this policy was Article 13(b) of the 1931 ‘Act on the Entry
and Residence of Foreign Nationals in Iran’, which states that the GoI can prohibit residency inor travel through certain areas of the country on grounds of security, public interest or
health. 236 As of September 2022, UNHCR indicated that roughly two-thirds of Iran’s territory
were no-go-districts for Afghan Amayesh cardholders. 237 Moreover, the GoI regulated
Afghans’ travel to other provinces, requiring them to inform the authorities and obtain travelauthorisation prior to starting their journey.238 Generally, Afghans are not allowed to live in nogo zones, still there are some exceptions such as for those residing in the settlements in nogo areas and cases of Afghans who are married to Iranian nationals 239. For more information

UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 1
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 15
228
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, p. 6
229
Switzerland, SEM, Focus Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of
Afghan Migrants], 30 March 2022, url, p. 18
230
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan situation update – 21 February 2022, 27 February 2022, url, p. 3
231
Al Jazeera, Taliban announces ‘amnesty,’ reaches out to women, 17 August 2021, url
232
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office and other International
Organizations in Geneva, Comment by the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning the risk of refoulement andobstacles faced by Afghan nationals seeking asylum, 14 February 2022, url, p. 3
233
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, pp. 22-23
234
UNHCR, Iran Set Global Precedent by Opening Refugees’ Access to Healthcare: UNHCR Rep, 17 October 2017,
url
235
Farzin, F. and Jadali, S., Freedom of movement of Afghan refugees in Iran, September 2013, url, p. 86
236
Iran, ‫[ ﻗﺎﻧﻮن راﺟﻊ ﺑﮫ ورود و اﻗﺎﻣﺖ اﺗﺒﺎع ﺧﺎرﺟﮫ در اﯾﺮان‬Act on the Entry and Residence of Foreign Nationals in Iran] of 10
May 1931, archived page from 14 May 2021, url, Article 13(b)237
UNHCR, Help Iran: Islamic Republic of Iran: No-go districts for Amayesh and Hoviyat card holders [Map], 19
September 2022, url
238
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 22
239International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 17 November 2022
226
227

31

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

regarding restrictions on movement for Afghan refugees, see section 4.1. Freedom of
movement.
The GoI also restricted Afghans’ access to services, including education in Iranian schools.240
Restrictions on education had been eased following an edict of the Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei in 2015. 241 Another policy, implemented since 2007, required Afghans to work in
specific types of jobs. 242 For more information regarding these policies, see sections
4.2. Education and 4.3. Employment and livelihoods.

(b)Passports and visas

Following the Taliban’s takeover of power in Afghanistan in August 2021, there were reportsof long delays and interruptions in the processing of passport applications in Afghanistan, 243
as well as unwillingness on the part of Afghan passport authorities to renew passports. 244
Afghans interviewed by Amnesty International mentioned lack of access to passport offices,high costs and delays as barriers to obtaining an Afghan passport. The same source reported
in August 2022 that many Afghan migrants who had not obtained passports prior to August2021 did not hold passports, 245 although a senior Taliban passport official stated the samemonth that over 700 000 passports had been issued to Afghan citizens since the Taliban took
power. 246
Some Afghans with passports did not have the financial means to cover the visa fees.247
According to a March 2022 article by Middle East Eye, the GoI has reportedly made the visa
renewals much more difficult since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Afghans seeking toextend visas that in the past could be renewed while staying in Iran were now required toreturn to Afghanistan to complete this process 248 (although extensions of entry, tourist,
pilgrimage and family reunification visas could be obtained at Kefalat centres in Iran as ofMarch 2022). 249 Those who did not want to take this step were reportedly charged one million
rials (EUR 24.5) 250 for each day they overstayed their visas. 251
Amnesty International cited Afghan interviewees saying that they had been unable to access
Iranian consulates in Afghanistan, that visas were issued only after long delays, or that they
were unable to afford the cost. 252 Some Iranian consular departments in Afghanistan (e.g. in
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 23
Zetter, R., Protection for forcibly displaced Afghan populations in Pakistan and Iran, DRC, September 2018, url, p.
60
242
Modrzejewska-Leśniewska, J., Afghan migrants in Iran in modern times, 2020, url, p. 17
243
TOLOnews, Passport Processing Resumes in Kabul, 9 April 2022, url; AFP, Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan
passports in Kabul, 18 December 2021
244
TOLOnews, Passport Processing Resumes in Kabul, 9 April 2022, url
245
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 12
246
VOA, Taliban Make Millions From Passports Issued to Fleeing Afghans, 24 August 2022, url
247
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 14
248
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
249
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on visa extension, 18 March 2022, url
250
Exchange rate from European Commission, Exchange rate (InforEuro), n.d., url, accessed on 13 October 2022
251
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
252
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 12
240
241

32

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Herat) suspended their services in the aftermath of the August 2021 Taliban takeover. Whilethey later resumed processing visa applications, 253 a series of anti-Iran protests in Afghanistan
in April 2022 prompted Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to announce that all work at Iranianconsulate offices would be halted until further notice. 254 Updated information on whether
Iranian consular offices in Afghanistan have resumed work in the meantime could not befound during the time constraints of this report.
A humanitarian source told Amnesty International that an Iranian visa costs as much as USD
800 (EUR 824) 255 on the black market in Afghanistan, 256 while an Afghan who had emigrated
to Iran after obtaining a three-month visa in autumn 2021 was quoted as saying that she had
to pay 1 100 euros in ‘bribes’ to have her visa application fast-tracked. Middle East Eye
referred to reports about an increase in ‘bribery’ at Iran’s embassy and consulates since
growing numbers of people started to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover of
power. 257(c)

Headcount registrations

According to Afghan deportees quoted by Salaam Times in June 2022, Iranian police arrested
undocumented Afghans while they were standing in queue to be registered under the 2022
headcount exercise, thus preventing them from obtaining a laissez-passer. 258 Corroborating
information on such cases could not be found within the time constraints of this report.

1.2.5.
(a)Access to Iranian citizenship for Afghan refugees, including
prevelance
Naturalisation

Iranian citizenship can be acquired by naturalisation if the applicant meets certain formal
requirements set out in Articles 979 and 980 of the Iranian Civil Code. 259 According to Article
979, ‘persons can obtain Iranian nationality if they: 1- Have reached the full age of 18. 2- Have
resided five years, whether continuously or intermittently, in Iran. 3 - Are not deserters frommilitary service. 4 - Have not been convicted in any country of non - political major
misdemeanours or felonies.’ 260
Article 980 stipulates that exemptions from the five-year residency requirement may be
granted for certain individuals, including for persons who have ‘rendered services or notableassistance to public interests in Iran’ and foreign men who have an Iranian wife by whom they

Switzerland, SEM, Focus Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of
Afghan Migrants], 30 March 2022, url, p. 20
254
Al-Monitor, Iran closes Afghanistan consulates after angry protests, 12 April 2022, url
255
Exchange rate from European Commission, Exchange rate (InforEuro), n.d., url, accessed on 13 October 2022
256
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 12
257
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
258
Salaam Times, Promising residence permits, Iran lures Afghans for deportation instead, 9 June 2022, url
259
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 11
260
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 979
253

33

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

have children. However, this is subject to the approval of the Council of Ministers and the GoI
must consider the naturalisation to be ‘advisable’. 261
The procedure of naturalisation is laid out in Article 983 of the Civil Code: ‘An application for
naturalization must be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs direct or through theGovernors or Governors General, and be accompanied by the following documents[:] 1 Certified copy of the identity papers of the applicant, his wife and children. 2 - Certificate fromthe police stating the period of residence in Iran of the applicant, his clean record, possessionof sufficient property or of employment which ensures a livelihood.’ 262
Article 983 further states that ‘the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will complete, if necessary, theparticulars concerning the applicant and will send the papers to the Council of Ministers for an
appropriate decision rejecting or accepting the application. If the application is accepted adocument of nationality will be delivered to the applicant.’ 263
As of October 2021, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs specified that the following
documents were required when applying for citizenship: a completed and signed application
form; originals and copies of the most recent academic diplomas, the ID and nationality
documents of the applicant and his/her spouse, and their marriage documents; andphotographs of the applicant, the spouse and/or the children.264(b)Acquisition of Iranian citizenship through marriage

According to Article 976(6) of the Civil Code, ‘Every woman of foreign nationality who marries
an Iranian husband’ is considered to be an Iranian subject. 265 On the other hand, the law does
not automatically grant Iranian citizenship to foreign men married to Iranian women, 266
although (under Article 980 of the Civil Code) 267 it allows for facilitated naturalisation forforeign men who have children from their Iranian wife. 268(c)Access to Iranian citizenship for children from mixed marriages

Article 976(2) of the Civil Code states that ‘those born Iran or outside whose fathers are
Iranian’ are ‘considered to be Iranian subjects’. 269 It is required that the parents’ marriage isvalid and legitimate. 270 Regarding children born in Iran to foreign fathers, Article 976(5)stipulated until its amendment in 2019 271 that these persons attained Iranian citizenship if they
had ‘resided at least one more year in Iran immediately after reaching the full age of 18’. 272 (Itwas irrelevant here whether the mother had Iranian or foreign citizenship.) 273 In many cases ofIran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 980
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 983
263
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 983
264
Iran, MoFA, Citizenship, 27 October 2021, url.
265
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 976(6)266Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 9
267
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 980
268
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 9
269
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 976(2)270Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 7
271
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 20
272
Iran, The Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran [unofficial translation], 23 May 1928, url, Article 976(5)273Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 8
261

262

34

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

mixed marriage between Iranian women and foreign men, the children not only lacked Iranian
citizenship, but also did not have the citizenship of their father’s country274 if the father was
undocumented. 275
A new law that was adopted in parliament in 2019 276 and came into effect in June 2020 277
allowed Iranian women who were married to foreign men to apply for citizenship for theirunder-eighteen-year-old children278 even if they were born outside of Iran, 279 provided that
their marriage has been officially registered. 280 However, despite the new law, children of
Iranian women married to undocumented foreign men were still at risk of statelessness as
they were not conferred citizenship automatically (unlike children born to Iranian fathers). 281
Moreover, it was reported that some couples struggled to register their marriage, as thisrequired clearance from the MoI. 282
In December 2020, UNHCR reported that out of nearly 75 000 children (of Iranian mothers
and foreign fathers) who were assessed by the GoI to be at risk of becoming stateless, around
10 000 had their citizenship applications accepted and been issued an Iranian ID document(shenasnameh). 283 More recent information on this matter could not be found within the time
constraints of this report.

1.3.

Access to other civil documentation

1.3.1.

Birth and marriage certificates

According to the Iranian Civil Registration Law of 1976, registration of births is mandatory forchildren of Iranian parents as well as foreigners at the National Organization for Civil
Registration (NOCR). 284 Citing the NOCR, Landinfo stated in January 2021 that new-borns offoreigners living in Iran can be registered at NOCR offices, provided a passport and/or otheridentification document confirming legal residence in Iran as well as a birth note from thehospital can be presented. ‘These children will then receive a birth certificate for foreigners in
Iran.’ 285 UNHCR lists the necessary steps for birth registration: Individuals with documentation(daraye madarek eqamati motabar meaning ‘valid document of residence’) have to approach
BAFIA with the birth note that they received at the hospital to obtain a birth certificate for their
InfoMigrants, Iranian citizenship law for children of foreign fathers approved, 5 June 2020, url
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 20
276
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 20
277
Radio Farda, Children With Iranian Mothers, Foreign Fathers To Receive Citizenship, 4 June 2020, url
278
Radio Farda, Children With Iranian Mothers, Foreign Fathers To Receive Citizenship, 4 June 2020, url; UNHCR,
75,000 children in Iran to gain nationality under new law, 1 December 2020, url
279
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 20
280
InfoMigrants, Iranian citizenship law for children of foreign fathers approved, 5 June 2020, url
281
Delavari, E., Report on Citizenship Law: Iran, EUI, September 2020, url, p. 20
282
Washington Post (The), Breaking with some Mideast neighbors, Iran now lets mothers give their citizenship totheir children, 26 December 2020, url
283
UNHCR, 75,000 children in Iran to gain nationality under new law, 1 December 2020, url
284
Iran, Civil Registration Law, 7 July 1976 [English translation published on the website of the National
Organization for Civil Registration of the Iranian Ministry of Interior], url, art. 12; Norway, Landinfo, Report Iran Passports, ID and civil status documents, 5 January 2021 url, p. 9285
Norway, Landinfo, Report Iran - Passports, ID and civil status documents, 5 January 2021 url, p. 16
274

275

35

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

new-born. Iranian health centres and hospitals are also required to issue birth notes to those
without papers, however, in practice, undocumented persons may not receive a birth note andbirth certificate until they have valid residency documents. 286 Many children of undocumented
Afghans in Iran reportedly were not registered287 or faced difficulties obtaining legal
documentation. 288
Afghan nationals are eligible to marry in Iran irrespective of their residency status, 289 provided
they have a valid identity document. Their marriage is subject to Afghan laws and is registeredwith the Afghan Embassy. 290 In 2019, Lifos stated in a report (based on interviews withpersonnel of the Afghan mission in Iran from November 2017) that marriages are registeredbased on the nikah 291 contract or through testimonies at the Embassy and are also reported tothe headquarters in Kabul. Recognising a marriage that took place a long time ago and forwhich no documents are available might reportedly prove difficult. 292 In cases where an
Afghan national wants to marry an Iranian, identity documents and a legal residency in Iran are
required. 293 According to a June 2020 newspaper article, a foreign man must go throughmany security checks to register a marriage between an Iranian woman and an Afghan
national in Iran, and ultimately ‘may not be allowed to marry in the end’. 294
While Amayesh cardholders living in Iran are not permitted to obtain driving licenses (even formotorcycles), passport/visa holders are allowed to do so. 295

1.3.2.

Afghan ID documents

The UNHCR assistance website for refugees and asylum seekers in Iran refers individuals who
do not have a tazkera and/or valid passport to the Afghan Embassy in Tehran or theConsulate in Mashhad ‘for counselling and support in obtaining identity documents’. 296
According to a May 2022 report by IOM, Afghans who want to apply for a tazkera sometimes
have to wait two months or longer for the first appointment at the Afghan Embassy in Iran. The
lack of a trusted or available person in Afghanistan to complete the necessary paperwork is
one of the biggest challenges for applicants. 297 In addition, in its 2019 report Lifos mentioned(based on a 2017 interview with an international NGO in Tehran) that applying for Afghan ID
documents is particularly challenging for Afghans who do not reside in Tehran nor Mashad:
UNHCR, Help Iran: Birth Registration, n.d., url
Norway, Landinfo, Report Iran - Passports, ID and civil status documents, 5 January 2021 url, p. 16
288
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
289
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 4; Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans
in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 32
290
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 4
291
Niakh is the Islamic wedding ceremony performed by a mullah. Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran],
18 February 2019, url, p. 31
292
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, pp. 31-32
293
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 4
294
InfoMigrants, Iranian citizenship law for children of foreign fathers approved, 5 June 2020, url
295
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
296
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
297
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 4
286
287

36

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Due to travel restrictions, they must first apply for a permit to leave their province and travel toone of the branches of the diplomatic mission (embassy or consulate). The costs of this, aswell as the costs of transport depict additional obstacles for many Afghans to accessdocuments. 298
In May 2022, IOM stated that a tazkera is required to apply for an Afghan passport, 299 while in
September 2020 Migrationsverket300 referred to information from the Afghan Embassy in
Tehran as of February 2019 indicating that there are exemptions for Afghans without a tazkera
residing in Iran 301. Afghans applying for a passport at the Iranian diplomatic mission who do
not have a tazkera reportedly can apply instead for the issuance of an ID number document, aprocess called ‘verification of identity’, 302 (tasbit-e hoveiyat), for which they have to present thetazkera of their father, grandfather, or paternal cousin. When the applicant's identity can beverified at the tazkera office in Afghanistan, the Afghan Embassy issues an ID number
document, on the basis of which a passport can be issued. 303

1.4.

Treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran

1.4.1.

Social attitudes and treatment of registered, unregistered, andundocumented Afghans, including extent of integration into
Iranian society

In an August 2021 interview published by the German political foundation Friedrich Eberhart
Stiftung (FES), analyst and consultant David Ramin Jalilvand stated that Afghan refugees in
Iran were confronted with various forms of discrimination and barriers. According to Jalilvand,openly ‘xenophobic’ attitudes towards Afghans were common in Iranian society. 304 In a June
2022 article, Al Jazeera reported that ‘anti-Afghan sentiment’ was growing in the light of adifficult economic situation in Iran. 305 The social scientist Amin Saikal was quoted in an April
2022 article by Asia Times saying that the capability of Iran to provide for the Afghan refugees
was shrinking in the face of the effects of US-led sanctions on the country’s economy.
According to Saikal, the growing unemployment rate among Iranians coupled with the‘availability of cheap labour by the Afghan refugees’ was another reason that led many
Iranians to regard the ‘refugees as a costly burden’. 306 In mid-April 2022, Fair Planet 307
Sweden, Lifos, Afghaner i Iran [Afghans in Iran], 18 February 2019, url, p. 29
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 4
300
Please note that the information cited in the Migrationsverket report predates the Taliban's return to power inAugust 2021.
301
Sweden, Migrationsverket, Afghanistan – Medborgarskap, folkbokföring och identitetshandlingar [Citizenship,
registration and identity documents], 22 September 2020, url, p. 25
302
Norway, Landinfo, Afghanistan: Tazkera, passports and other ID documents, 22 May 2019, url, p. 7
303
Sweden, Migrationsverket, Afghanistan – Medborgarskap, folkbokföring och identitetshandlingar [Citizenship,
registration and identity documents], 22 September 2020, url, pp. 25-26
304
FES, Afghanische Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert‘ [Afghan refugees facemultiple forms of discrimination in Iran], 26 August 2021, url305
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
306
Asia Times, Anti-Afghan sentiment undercuts Iran-Taliban ties, 29 April 2022, url
307
FairPlanet is a global ‘non-profit social enterprise and independent media organisation’ with a focus on humanrights and the nature; Fair Planet, About Fair Planet, n.d., url
298

299

37

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

reported that there was a ‘general resentment on the streets in Iran’ against Afghan
refugees. 308 An Afghan returnee, who had left for Iran at the end of 2021, was quoted by
TOLOnews in April 2022 saying that he had decided to go back to Afghanistan due to ‘their
bad treatment even with people who had visas’. 309 At the same time, an April 2022 article by
the Deutsche Welle (DW) reported that NGOs and activists from civil society have beenoffering support to undocumented Afghans in Iran for a number of years, particularly to thoseat the periphery of major cities. They have been collecting warm clothes and food andsupporting women and children and their education. 310 The same month, the New York Times
reported that there were many Iranians ‘who welcome, assist and employ Afghans’. However,the undocumented Afghans faced ‘many challenges and hurdles for assimilation’, for example
when it came to finding a job or school enrolment and ‘many are subject to ethnic profiling’and ‘treated as suspects when crimes occur in their neighborhoods’. 311
On 28 January 2022, AFP reported about a demonstration in the Iranian Sistan-Baluchestan
province in southeast Iran over water rights for the Helmand River flowing from Afghanistan.
With reference to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the article described how
protestors attacked Afghan vehicles that were placed at the border crossing. Iranian security
forces reportedly intervened. 312
In the first week of April 2022, two Iranian Shia scholars were killed and another one wasinjured at the Imam Reza Shrine, an important Shia shrine in the pilgrimage city of Mashhad, ina knife attack during the Muslim month of Ramadan. 313 Reportedly, the attack unleashedconcerns of a rise in negative sentiment against Afghans and refugees across Iran. 314 On
6 April 2022, the Iranian ‘semi-official’ 315 Tasnim News Agency, believed to be close to theIslamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), 316 reported that the attacker originated fromUzbekistan and had entered Iran via the Pakistani border a year before. 317 According to AlMonitor as of 7 April 2022, Iranian media had not specified whether the attacker was from
‘Uzbekistan or of Uzbek ethnicity from Afghanistan’ 318. Based on videos of the attack whichwere taken by pilgrims, initially many Iranians had taken the attacker for an Afghan, which had
prompted ‘a deluge of racist hatred about Afghans’. 319 However, according to an article by IranFair Planet, Refugees face increased racism and discrimination, 15 April 2022, url
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran Complain of Harassment, 7 April 2022, url
310
DW, Afghanen fliehen in den Iran trotz verstärkter Abschiebungen [Afghans flee to Iran despite a rise indeportations], 8 April 2022, url
311
New York Times (The), Afghan Immigrant's Deadly Knife Attack on Clerics in Iran Fuels a Crisis, 29 April 2022
312
AFP, Iran water protesters attack Afghan vehicles: state media, 28 January 2022
313
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url; New York Times (The),
Afghan Immigrant's Deadly Knife Attack on Clerics in Iran Fuels a Crisis, 29 April 2022; AFP, Iran hangs extremist
accused of murdering Shiite clerics, 20 June 2022
314
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url; Asia Times, Anti-Afghan
sentiment undercuts Iran-Taliban ties, 29 April 2022, url; New York Times (The), Afghan Immigrant's Deadly Knife
Attack on Clerics in Iran Fuels a Crisis, 29 April 2022
315
Arab News, Iran’s Guard fires cruise missiles in military exercise, 21 December 2021, url
316
Arab News, Iran’s Guard fires cruise missiles in military exercise, 21 December 2021, url
317
Tasnim News Agency, (‫ ﺟﺰﯾﯿﺎﺗﯽ از ھﻮﯾﺖ ﺿﺎرب ﺳﮫ روﺣﺎﻧﯽ در ﺣﺮم رﺿﻮی)ع‬/‫[ اﺧﺘﺼﺎﺻﯽ ﺗﺴﻨﯿﻢ‬Tasnim exclusive: Details on theidentity of attacker of three clerics in the holy Shrine of Reza], 6 April 2022, url
318
Al-Monitor, Three Iranian clerics stabbed, one killed in attack at shrine, 7 April 2022, url
319
Asia Times, Anti-Afghan sentiment undercuts Iran-Taliban ties, 29 April 2022, url
308

309

38

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESInternational 320 of 6 April 2022, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf
had ‘indirectly confirmed’ the attacker’s Afghan nationality by stating in parliament that theattack should not negatively affect the friendly relationship between nations followed by acomment on the contribution of Afghans to the Iran-Iraq war and the Syrian war. 321 The New
York Times reported that the shrine attack ‘set off a chain of events that has spiralled into
ethnic tensions in Iran and Afghanistan and a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.’ 322
Reportedly, days after the incident in Mashhad, a group of peacefully gathered Afghans in thecity of Karaj was attacked by vigilantes with ‘knives, axes and bats’ and Afghan workers
reported of being short-changed on their payments. 323 Furthermore, in the first half of April
2022, several sources reported about a number of videos which had circulated on social
media allegedly showing how Afghan persons were mistreated by Iranian civilians. 324 For
instance, Fair Planet reported about videos which were showing cases of physical abuse,‘threatening and dishonoring’ in Iran of mostly younger refugees by authorities and in somecases by civilians. 325 One video allegedly showed how a young Afghan man was beaten by agroup of Iranian men, while police officers, who were present at the scene, did not intervene.
Two other videos purportedly showed how Afghan individuals were humiliated by Iranianindividuals who, among others, forced them to utter profanities against themselves or against
Afghans in general. Another video reportedly showed the ‘aftermath of an alleged mob attack
on a car carrying Afghan migrants’ in the city of Yazd. 326 As of early April 2022, theauthenticity of these videos according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) 327 andReuters could not be verified. 328
Sources reported of demonstrations in Kabul 329 and Herat 330 in reaction to the videos.
According to a TOLOnews article, the protestors ‘urged the United Nations Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) to review the videos showing the alleged harassment and even killing ofAfghan refugees in Iran’. Furthermore, one protestor was quoted to have said that ‘an Afghanchild was killed in Iran by a punch’. 331 Reportedly, Iranian officials denied the allegations 332 and320
According to the German radio broadcaster Radio Eins, Iran International is a London-based TV broadcaster
funded with money from Saudi-Arabia; Radio Eins, Afghanistan International mit Hörfunkübertragung, 5 June 2022,
url
321
Iran International, Iran Officials Blame Sunni 'Takfiris' For Knife Attack On Clerics, 6 April 2022, url
322
New York Times (The), Afghan Immigrant's Deadly Knife Attack on Clerics in Iran Fuels a Crisis, 29 April 2022
323
New York Times (The), Afghan Immigrant's Deadly Knife Attack on Clerics in Iran Fuels a Crisis, 29 April 2022
324
RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran,
8 April 2022, url; Fair Planet, Refugees face increased racism and discrimination, 15 April 2022, url; Reuters, Iransummons Afghan envoy after protesters throw rocks at diplomatic missions, 12 April 2022, url; TOLOnews, Kabul
Residents Protest Abuse of Afghans in Iran, 11 April 2022, url
325
Fair Planet, Refugees face increased racism and discrimination, 15 April 2022, url
326
RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran,
8 April 2022, url
327
RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran,
8 April 2022, url
328
Reuters, Iran summons Afghan envoy after protesters throw rocks at diplomatic missions, 12 April 2022, url
329
Reuters, Iran summons Afghan envoy after protesters throw rocks at diplomatic missions, 12 April 2022, url;
TOLOnews, Kabul Residents Protest Abuse of Afghans in Iran, 11 April 2022, url
330
Reuters, Iran summons Afghan envoy after protesters throw rocks at diplomatic missions, 12 April 2022, url
331
TOLOnews, Kabul Residents Protest Abuse of Afghans in Iran, 11 April 2022, url
332
Reuters, Iran summons Afghan envoy after protesters throw rocks at diplomatic missions, 12 April 2022, url;
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran Complain of Harassment, 7 April 2022, url

39EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

claimed that the videos were distributed by individuals ‘attempting to sever ties between thepeople of the two countries’ 333 and that the videos were ‘fake’. 334(a)Extent of integration into Iranian society

In May 2022 and May 2021, respectively, the Austrian BFA and the German Federal Office forMigration and Refugees (BAMF) with reference to the German Foreign Ministry reported thatthe extent of integration of refugees in Iran was limited. 335 According to the German Foreign
Ministry, this was the case although Afghans were in part already living in Iran for the second
generation. 336 An Iran International article of April 2022 mentioned that many Afghans were
living in the city of Mashhad, where they could mostly be found in the ‘poverty-strickenneighborhoods’. 337
Afghans in Iran were often found to work in low-grade and ill-paid jobs, such as in the fields ofconstruction, garbage collection or agriculture.338 In its Country Report on Human Rights
Practices for 2021 on Iran, USDOS found that there were significant numbers of children in
Iran, in particular Afghan children, were working as vendors in the streets of major cities. 339
While an August 2021 IranWire article reported that Afghans were ‘widely regarded in Iran as
hard workers, with a high degree of indefatigability and often, physical strength’ and that their‘simple, low-cost lifestyle is also a source of admiration’, 340 IranWire also stated that employers
often did not treat Afghans equally to Iranians. 341 Afghans (and other migrants) were reportedly
sometimes subjected to abusive conditions, for example by being paid less, not being paid atall, 342 or being compelled to do compulsory overtime. 343 According to IranWire, many ended
up in debt slavery to human traffickers. 344 USDOS also stated that Afghans were sometimes
subjected to summary deportation by employers. The source further elaborated that while
Iranian law prohibited and criminalised forced or compulsory labour in all its forms, theGovernment of Iran ‘did not effectively enforce the law and made no significant effort toaddress forced labor’ during 2021.345

TOLOnews, Kabul Residents Protest Abuse of Afghans in Iran, 11 April 2022, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in
Iran Complain of Harassment, 7 April 2022, url
334
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran Complain of Harassment, 7 April 2022, url
335
Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url; Germany, BAMF, Länderreport 35: Iran: Aktuelle Lage vor den
Präsidentschaftswahlen: Die hybride Staatsordnung, Strafrecht, Menschenrechtslage und Ausblick [Current
situation before the presidential elections: The Hybrid State Order, Criminal Law, Human Rights Situation and
Outlook], May 2021, url, p. 17
336
Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
337
Iran International, Iran Officials Blame Sunni 'Takfiris' For Knife Attack On Clerics, 6 April 2022, url
338
Germany, BAMF, Länderreport 35: Iran: Aktuelle Lage vor den Präsidentschaftswahlen: Die hybride
Staatsordnung, Strafrecht, Menschenrechtslage und Ausblick [Current situation before the presidential elections:
The Hybrid State Order, Criminal Law, Human Rights Situation and Outlook], May 2021, url, p. 17
339
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 77
340
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
341
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
342
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 79; IranWire, What
Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
343
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 79
344
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
345
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 79
33340

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

According to the Austrian Embassy in Tehran in November 2021, referred to by the Austrian
BFA, Afghans in Iran have sometimes experienced discrimination and have been protested
against. For example, protests were being held against the enrolment of Afghan children inschools. 346 For a 2020 academic paper co-authored by Abbas Deilamizade and otherresearchers, 27 interviews with Afghan male drug addicts in Iran with an average age of 26
years, who had completed detoxification, were conducted 347 on the issues of ‘stigma’ anddrug addiction. The ‘stigma’ of being a refugee was experienced by the interviewees, inparticular at school (including in childhood), at workplace including ‘harder work, low wages,
night shifts, and job insecurity’. 348
According to the Austrian Embassy in Tehran, marriages between Iranians and Afghan
refugees were not infrequent. However, they were difficult to establish because Iranianauthorities requested documents from the embassy or the Afghan authorities. 349

1.4.2.

Treatment by authorities, including since the Taliban takeoverin Afghanistan in August 2021

Policies of the Iranian government of the late 1980s dealt with the statuses of refugees andfocussed on their legalisation in Iran, while the policies of the 1960s and 70s had focussed on
the return of Afghans to Afghanistan. In a February 2021 article, the Khaama Press News
Agency further claimed that state media reports on issues related to immigration became
more positive, particularly in comparison with those of the 1970s. The presence of Afghan
artists on state television became a normality and the discourse of high-ranking officials
became softer and more tolerant towards refugees in the years preceding the reporting. 350
In an article published on 9 September 2022 by the state-run 351 Tehran Times, UNHCR
representative Ivo Freijsen was quoted saying that Iran provided ‘wide-ranging services forrefugees’ and that it was an ‘exemplary country that has acted very well in hosting refugees’352
while, according to UNHCR and NGOs, it has not received much international support. 353 In a
June 2022 article, Al Jazeera quoted UN spokesperson Duniya Aslam Khan saying that the
Iranian policy was ‘commendable’ and among the ‘most inclusive’ because it allowed refugees
access to a number of legal services. According to her, the UN had not seen ‘a major shift inAustria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
347
The paper has not clearly stated when the interviews were conducted. However, it indicated that the study
participants were ‘recruited from two midterm residential drug treatment centers […] in Tehran, where they had
been admitted in 2013 to 2014 and that the participants were interviewed in residential centres; Deilamizade, A. etal., The sources of stigma and the impacts on Afghan refugees with substance abuse disorders: A qualitative study
in Iran, 2020, url, p. 613
348
Deilamizade, A. et al., The sources of stigma and the impacts on Afghan refugees with substance abuse
disorders: A qualitative study in Iran, 2020, url, p. 618
349
Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
350
The Khaama Press News Agency, ‫[ ﻣﮭﺎﺟﺮان اﻓﻐﺎﻧﯽ در اﯾﺮان و ﻣﺸﻜﻼﺗﯽ ﻛﮫ دھﮫھﺎی ﻣﺘﻤﺎدی ﮔﺮﯾﺒﺎنﮔﯿﺮ آنھﺎﺳﺖ‬Afghan refugees in
Iran and the problems they have faced for decades], 18 February 2021, url
351
AFP, Thousands of Afghans deported from Iran to Taliban rule, 11 November 2021
352
Tehran Times, UNHCR is honored to support Iran's efforts regarding refugees, 9 September 2022, url
353
Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
346

41

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

government policy’ after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. 354 The Norwegian RefugeeCouncil (NRC) on its website also describes the country’s refugee policies as ‘inclusive’. NRC
elaborated that Iran was granting all Afghans access to primary health care and all Afghanchildren access to public schools, while it was possible for Afghans with Amayesh cards andvisas to work in certain fields. 355
After a visit to Iran, the UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan stated that the country’s
government had ‘expressed its commitment to continue implementing inclusive policies,
including by offering access to primary healthcare and education’, despite its restricted
capacity to provide assistance due to the difficult economic situation, the economic impact ofsanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in humanitarian assistance costs. 356 Social
scientist Amin Saikal was quoted in an April 2022 Asia Times article stating that theGovernment of Iran had been ‘tightening its belt’ on Afghan refugees as a result of thecountry’s difficult economic situation and growing unemployment rate. 357 In October 2021,
Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic to the UN, Zahra Ershadi,
stated, with reference to the country’s difficult economic situation, that Iran had hosted morethan 300 000 new asylum seekers ‘in recent months’ and it ‘cannot host the displaced
populations any longer’. However, she closed by saying that the Islamic Republic of Iran ‘will
continue to play its role in addressing the problems of refugees’. 358 For further information on
the situation for Afghan refugees in Iran regarding healthcare, education and employment,
please refer to section 4. Internal mobility and socio-economic situation of Afghan refugees in
Iran.
IranWire reported in August 2021 that the presence of Afghans in Iran has been subjected to‘negative, often subliminal propaganda by state institutions and media’ for a long time, which‘began to change in recent years after the formation of the Fatemiyoun Brigade’. 359
In March 2022, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) reported that a number ofNGOs existed in Iran, which took care of Afghan refugees. However, Iranian authorities have
reduced the scope of these organisations in the years preceding the reporting, namely the
Imam Ali Society 360, which offered support to Afghan refugees and was once one of Iran’smajor NGOs. As described by SEM the NGO’s leader was arrested in 2020 and theorganisation was legally dissolved in 2021. 361 In a May 2022 report, the Country of Origin
Information (COI) unit of the Austrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum indicated with

Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
NRC, NRC in Iran, n.d., url
356
UN Human Rights Council, Visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran; Report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative
impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan [Advanced Unedited
Version], A/HRC/51/33/Add.1, 17 August 2022, url, pp. 12-14
357
Asia Times, Anti-Afghan sentiment undercuts Iran-Taliban ties, 29 April 2022, url
358
Iran, Envoy: Iran to continue to play its role in addressing refugees' problems, 30 October 2021, url
359
For further information on the Fatemiyoun Brigade, please refer to section 1.4.3 Recruitment of Afghan refugees
to fight for Iran in foreign countries.
360
Also: Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society; Imam Ali Society, (‫[ ﻣﻌﺮﻓﯽ ﺟﻤﻌﯿﺖ اﻣﺎم ﻋﻠﯽ )ع‬About the Imam Ali
Society, Image 1], n.d., url; Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5,[source: Austrian Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
361
Switzerland, SEM, Focus Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of
Afghan Migrants], 30 March 2022, url, p. 23
354

355

42

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

reference to the Austrian Embassy in Tehran that the NGO was banned in March 2021. 362 The
NGO appeared to be still active as of March 2022. 363 According to the December 2021
Humanitarian Access Overview by ACAPS, after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August2021 and the subsequent displacement movements into Iran, ‘[h]umanitarian access in Iran
has deteriorated’. The source further stated that in theory healthcare and educational services
were available for all refugees in Iran, including the undocumented, but many found it
challenging to enjoy these services, because they were afraid to be returned. 364
On 15 August 2021, the day of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the Independent reported
that Iran had established temporary camps for refugees in three provinces along the border to
Afghanistan for newly arriving Afghans. The source further quoted an official of Iran’s interior
ministry stating that the government expected those refugees to return upon improvement of
the situation in Afghanistan. 365 The establishment of camps in border areas for theaccommodation of new arrivals appears to be the common strategy of the Government of Iranaccording to IOM. 366 According to a November 2021 article by AsiaNews, 367 the Governmentof Iran reacted to Afghans entering Iran after August 2021 ‘with push backs, expulsions,
alleged abuse and violence’. 368 In March 2022, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported, withreference to statements made by Afghans from the cities of Mashhad and Tehran, that the‘Islamic Republic has made the visa renewal process extremely difficult’. While before the
Taliban takeover, it was possible for Afghans to renew their visas inside Iran, after the
takeover, they had to travel to Afghanistan to renew or extend their visas, which for many
Afghans remained ‘a dangerous proposition’. 369 As of 15 April 2022, the entry into Irancontinued to be allowed exclusively for holders of Afghan passports with valid Iranian visas. 370
Between April and June 2022, Iranian authorities carried out a headcount exercise for
undocumented Afghans.371 Individuals who took part in the headcount received headcountslips valid until at least 22 October 2022. Holders of these slips are understood to be offeredtemporary protection against forced returns. The government of Iran has indicated theirintention to forcibly return those who have not participated in the headcount. 372 According to amember of an international humanitarian organisation delivering relief, assistance andprotection to people of concern, interviewed by Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik for its
Austria, BFA Staatendokumentation, Iran Country Report from the COI-CMS, Version 5, [source: Austrian
Embassy in Tehran], 23 May 2022, url
363
Switzerland, SEM, Focus Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of
Afghan Migrants], 30 March 2022, url, p. 23
364
ACAPS, Humanitarian Access Overview, December 2021, url, p. 18
365
Independent (The), Iran sets up refugee camps along border as Afghans flee Taliban rule, 15 August 2021, url
366
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 1
367
‘AsiaNews gives particular attention to the theme of religious freedom […] but also to the concrete life of theChristian communities of Asia’; AsiaNews, About Us, n.d., url
368
AsiaNews, Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran, a humanitarian time-bomb also for Europe, 11
November 2021, url
369
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
370
IOM, Information on the socio-economic situation for Afghans in the Islamic Republic of Iran requested by theAustrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, 4 May 2022, url, p. 1
371
Another headcount exercise for undocumented individuals in Iran was carried out in 2017; UNHCR, Global Focus:
2018 Planning Summary – Operation: Islamic Republic of Iran, 14 November 2017, url, p. 4
372
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 16 May – 30 June 2022, 30 June
2022, url, pp. 1-2
362

43

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

September 2022 report on Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia, ‘this
may have serious implications for the safety of Afghan nationals who arrive in Iran after thecompletion of the headcount, as they will not benefit from the same protections’. 373
In its April 2022 report, the US Department of State (USDOS) stated that Iranian authorities
were routinely arresting Afghans who do not hold Amayesh cards and in some cases‘threatened them with deportation’. Referencing IOM, USDOS also reported that someundocumented Afghans who had returned to Afghanistan claimed to have been ‘pressured toleave or left due to abuse by police or state authorities’. Furthermore, there were reports on
mistreatment of ‘many Afghans’ by authorities, such as ‘physical abuse by security forces,
deportations, forced recruitment to fight in Syria, detention in unsanitary and inhumanconditions, forced payment for transportation to and accommodation in deportation camps,
forced labor, forced separation from families, restricted movement within the country’. 374 In a
February 2022 article, TOLOnews reported that in less than six months Iranian security forces
had killed around 100 Afghan refugees, whose bodies were transferred to Afghanistan, and at
least 460 persons with injuries had entered Afghanistan from Iran through the border of Islam
Qala. Some people ‘have been beaten, their arms and legs have been broken’. 375 Sources
further reported about the alleged ill-treatment of Afghan refugees by Iranian authorities in
April 2022. 376 On 15 April 2022, Fair Planet reported that circulating videos allegedly showed
how Iranian authorities were ‘physically abusing, threatening and dishonoring mostly younger
refugees who seem to have taken shelter in Iran’. 377 Iranian officials denied that Afghan
refugees were mistreated in Iran. 378
In November 2021, AFP spoke to around 20 Afghan returnees that stated they were ‘held incrowded, filthy detention camps [in Iran] where some were beaten before being transported tothe border crossing’. Individuals who could not afford to pay for the transportation back to
Afghanistan were reportedly held in detention camps. 379
There were reports of least five Afghan citizens among a minimum of 251 individuals executedin Iran between 1 January and 30 June 2022. 380 In June 2022 an Afghan sentenced to deathfor killing two clerics was executed, 381 and in July 2022, an Afghan woman was reportedly
executed for killing her husband.382

Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia, September 2022, url,
p. 18
374
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 46
375
TOLOnews, Scores of Iran-Bound Afghan Refugees Killed, 100s Beaten: Locals, 8 February 2022, url
376
AA, 'Cruel' action on Afghan refugees in Iran sparks outrage, 26 April 2022, url; Fair Planet, Refugees face
increased racism and discrimination, 15 April 2022, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran Complain ofHarassment, 7 April 2022, url; RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment
Of Afghan Refugees In Iran, 8 April 2022, url
377
Fair Planet, Refugees face increased racism and discrimination, 15 April 2022, url
378
Reuters, Iran Summons Afghan Envoy After Protesters Throw Rocks at Diplomatic Missions, 12 April 2022, url
379
AFP, Thousands of Afghans deported from Iran to Taliban rule, 11 November 2021
380
UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republicof Iran, Javaid Rehman, A/77/181, 18 July 2022, url, para. 10
381
The Khaama Press News Agency, Man Hanged in Iran for Stabbing Three Clerics, 20 June 2022, url
382
Iran Human Rights, Three Women Executed in a Day; Afghan Senobar Jalali Executed for Murder, 29 July 2022,
url
373

44

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

For further information on treatment of Afghans at the border and upon entry into Iran, pleaserefer to section 3. Border crossings and human smuggling/trafficking of Afghan refugees,
including prevalence and treatment.

1.4.3.

Recruitment of Afghan refugees to fight for Iran in foreigncountries

The Iranian Fatemiyoun Brigade (also called Fatemioun military division, 383 FB, 384 Liwa 385
Fatemiyoun 386), which came into existence in 2013 387 or 2014, 388 was made up of Afghan
fighters, 389 of which some were undocumented. 390 There are sources which report that thebrigade was first deployed to Syria in 2013. 391 The Atlantic Council reported in October 2021
that many ethnic Hazara men have joined the brigade 392 and other sources indicated that thebrigade was mainly composed of Hazara. 393 While sources reported that the brigade wasprimarily composed of individuals residing in Iran, 394 the United States Institute for Peace(USIP) stated that the Fatemiyoun Brigade drew its ‘membership primarily from Shia Afghan
communities in Iran and Afghanistan’. 395 In an April 2021 article, Arian Sharifi, former Senior
Adviser to Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, stated that fighters for the Fatemiyoun Brigade werepredominantly ‘recruited from among Shia Afghan refugees in Iran’. 396 The Fatemiyoun
Brigade was established in the aftermath of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in the Middle East as
one of four Iranian Shia militant groups. 397 More specifically, Arian Sharifi mentions that ‘theorigins of the Fatemiyoun traces to the now defunct “Mohammad Corp” and the “Abuzar
Division,” both Afghan Shia militant groups commissioned by Iran to fight in the Iran-Iraq war in
394F

395F

396F

Guardian (The), Afghan refugees in Iran being sent to fight and die for Assad in Syria, 5 November 2015, url
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 94
385
Meaning ‘brigade’ in Arabic. Karatas, I., Iran’s Use of Afghan Shiite Migrants as Proxies: The Case of Liwa
Fatemiyoun, 27 May 2021, url, p. 39
386
Karatas, I., Iran’s Use of Afghan Shiite Migrants as Proxies: The Case of Liwa Fatemiyoun, 27 May 2021, url, p. 39
387
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url; Majalla, 'I am
Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of Afghan Refugees in Iran, 19 June 2020, url
388
France, OFPRA, Iran: La Force Al-Qods du Corps des Gardiens de la Révolution islamique (CGRI), 13 December
2021, url, p. 3; Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url;
Karatas, I., Iran’s Use of Afghan Shiite Migrants as Proxies: The Case of Liwa Fatemiyoun, 27 May 2021, url, p. 33
389
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url, p. 1; Majalla,'I am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of Afghan Refugees in Iran, 19 June 2020, url; Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen
Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 93; USIP, The Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration
into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 1; France, OFPRA, Iran: La Force Al-Qods du Corps des Gardiens de laRévolution islamique (CGRI), 13 December 2021, url, p. 3; IranWire, Prominent Shia Afghan Accuses Iran of
Exploiting His Countrymen, 13 April 2021, url
390
Majalla, 'I am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of Afghan Refugees in Iran, 19 June 2020, url; Schwartz, K. L.,“Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 100
391
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 96; USIP, The
Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 1
392
Atlantic Council, The Hazara community in Afghanistan is stuck in the middle between Iran and the Taliban, 22
October 2021, url
393
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 96; IranWire,
Prominent Shia Afghan Accuses Iran of Exploiting His Countrymen, 13 April 2021, url
394
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 94; IranWire,
Prominent Shia Afghan Accuses Iran of Exploiting His Countrymen, 13 April 2021, url
395
USIP, The Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 1
396
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
397
The others being the Zainabiyoun, the Aliyoun and the Haidariyoun, composed of fighters from‚ Pakistan, Iraq
and Syria, respectively’. Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April
2021, url
383

384

45

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

the 1980s and later against the Taliban in the ’90s’. 398 The brigade was restructured as aprofessionalised proxy force with the onset of ISIL in Syria and Iraq 399 and sent to Syria in
support of the Syrian government.400 The brigade was reportedly considered a proxy fighting
force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria, 401 more precisely the IRGC’s
Quds Force branch402 that ‘focuses on operations, threats, and strategic objectives outside of
the country’s borders’ 403 and is ‘responsible for unconventional warfare and military
intelligence’. 404
Kevin L. Schwartz, Research Fellow and Deputy Director of Research at the Oriental Instituteof the Czech Academy of Sciences, 405 reported in his abovementioned article, that recruitment
for the brigade appeared to have stopped by 2018, ‘perhaps reflecting the brigade’s
decreased combat role following Tehran’s declaration of victory’ over ISIL. 406 However, aDecember 2021 article by Diyaruna, a USCENTCOM-sponsored website, 407 indicated withreference to the Fatemiyoun’s ‘active media presence on Telegram and its posting of current
events in Iran and Syria’ that Iran kept recruiting Afghans into the Fatemiyoun. 408 In its July
2022 Trafficking in Persons Report on Iran, USDOS stated, with reference to ‘several credible
sources,’ that the IRGC and the Basij 409 continued to recruit Afghan men and boys who live in
Iran as fighters for the Fatemiyoun Brigade. 410
In March 2019, USIP reported that most recruits were ‘in their twenties and thirties’ and‘motivated mainly by economic deprivation and vulnerabilities due to their migrant status and,to a lesser degree, by religious sentiments and a sense of youthful military adventurism’. 411
Furthermore, sources reported on the alleged recruitment of children and adolescents into theFatemiyoun Brigade. 412

Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, urlAtlantic Council, The Hazara community in Afghanistan is stuck in the middle between Iran and the Taliban, 22
October 2021, url
400
France, OFPRA, Iran: La Force Al-Qods du Corps des Gardiens de la Révolution islamique (CGRI), 13 December
2021, url, p. 3; TOLOnews, Transcript of TOLOnews Interview with Iran’s Javad Zarif [direct quote of Iran's thenForeign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif], 22 December 2020, url
401
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url; Atlantic Council, The
Hazara community in Afghanistan is stuck in the middle between Iran and the Taliban, 22 October 2021, url
402
France, OFPRA, Iran: La Force Al-Qods du Corps des Gardiens de la Révolution islamique (CGRI), 13 December
2021, url, p. 3; IranWire, Prominent Shia Afghan Accuses Iran of Exploiting His Countrymen, 13 April 2021, url; Sharifi,A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
403
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 97
404
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
405
New Arab (The), Kevin Schwartz and Olmo Gölz, 17 October 2022, url
406
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 97
407
Diyaruna, About Us, n.d., url
408
Diyaruna, Shadow of Fatemiyoun militia looms over Afghanistan's future, 26 December 2021, url
409
The Basij is a milita created as a ‘paramilitary volunteer milita’ by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. Since
1981 they operate under the IRGC’s organisational structure. They consist mainly of individuals from ‘poor, ruralbackgrounds’. ‘In peacetime, they enforce Iran’s Islamic social codes, acting as a morality police at checkpoints andparks, at other times crushing protests.’ The Basij is also involved when natural disasters occur and is present ingovernment institutions. VOA, Iran's Basij Force: Specialists in Cracking Down on Dissent, 22 September 2022, url
410
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
411
USIP, The Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 1
412
FES, „Afghanische Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert" ["Afghan refugees facemultiple forms of discrimination in Iran"], 26 August 2021, url; USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices
for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, pp. 31, 66
398

399

46

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Sources moreover indicated that recruits signed up for the brigade based on promises ofcitizenship 413 (this was reportedly not complied to), 414 obtaining legal immigration status in
Iran, 415 for the fighter and/or his family, 416 promises of a monthly salary, 417 free schooling forchildren, health insurance, and social status upon return418 as well as threats of deportation419
and detention. 420 According to USDOS in July 2022, Afghan fighters who had returned fromwar were refused residency in Iran. They remained undocumented in Iran or went back to
Afghanistan, ‘where they fear persecution by the Taliban for alleged association with theFatemiyoun Brigade’. 421 Reportedly, the Iranian government claimed that the fighters joined
the brigade ‘voluntarily’ while Afghan officials 422 contested this view. 423
According to Arian Sharifi in his April 2021 article, as the fighting in Syria became more
intense, ‘the Quds Force began reaching out to the Shia Hazara population inside Afghanistan
too, establishing recruiting networks in multiple provinces, including the capital Kabul’. The
transport of recruits was organised ‘under the guise of pilgrimage trips to holy shrines in Syria
and Iraq, using travel agencies with close connections to the Iranian Embassy in Kabul’. The
source elaborated that the recruits were then trained in Iran. 424 USDOS, with reference tomedia sources reporting in 2021, mentioned that upon recruitment, the fighters were sent to
Lebanon for the military training. 425
Schwartz reported that the exact number of members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade was ‘difficult
to determine’. 426 In a February 2021 article, IranWire reported that it was unknown how many
Fatemiyoun fighters had fought in Syria. 427 However, in March 2019, USIP stated that around

IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url; FES, Afghanische
Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert [Afghan refugees face multiple forms of
discrimination in Iran], 26 August 2021, url
414
IranWire, What Treatment Can Fleeing Afghans Expect From Iran?, 16 August 2021, url
415
Crawley, H. and Kaytaz E. S., Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Afghan Migration to Europe From Iran, 27 July
2022, url, p. 8; USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url; FES,
„Afghanische Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert" ["Afghan refugees facemultiple forms of discrimination in Iran"], 26 August 2021, url; Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan
Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url; Majalla, 'I am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of Afghan
Refugees in Iran, 19 June 2020, url
416
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 98
417
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url; Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen
Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, pp. 102-103; Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army:
Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url; Majalla, 'I am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of
Afghan Refugees in Iran, 19 June 2020, url
418
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
419
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, pp. 96, 98; FES,
Afghanische Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert [Afghan refugees face multiple
forms of discrimination in Iran], 26 August 2021, url
420
Crawley, H. and Kaytaz E. S., Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Afghan Migration to Europe From Iran, 27 July
2022, url, p. 8; Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url;
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
421
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url422
Please note that ‘Afghan officials’ here refers to officials of the Ashraf Ghani government before the Taliban
takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
423
AA, Fatemiyoun, refugees trouble Iran-Afghanistan relations, 24 December 2020, url
424
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
425
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
426
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, pp. 96-97
427
IranWire, Afghan Migrants in Iran Get a Simple Choice: Fight in Syria or be Deported, 4 February 2021, url
413

47

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

50 000 Fatemiyoun fighters had been deployed to Syria since 2013.428 According to Schwartz
estimates of the Fatemiyoun’s size ranged from 5 000 to 20 000 fighters. 429 In 2015, thebrigade was upgraded to a military division 430 or army, 431 which was ‘supposed to have
between 10,000 to 12,000 members’ at the time. 432 In its February 2022 report, Freedom
House stated that ‘thousands of Afghan migrants living in Iran’ had been recruited by the
IRGC ‘to fight in Syria’. 433
In an April 2021 article, IranWire reported that the Iranian government had never revealed any
numbers or names related to casualties among the Fatemiyoun. With reference to Afghan
officials, the source further indicated that a minimum of 5 000 Afghans had died in the Syrian
conflict ‘for the Islamic Republic’. 434 An Anadolu Agency (AA) article published in December
2020 indicated that around 2 000 fighters of the brigade had died in Syria ‘according to roughestimates’. 435
As mentioned before, the Fatemiyoun Brigade was first deployed in Syria to support the
Syrian government. 436 After the conflict in Syria quieted down, some Fatemiyoun fighters werereportedly deployed in Yemen to support the Houthis, while many went back to Afghanistan
and some to Iran. However, Sharifi indicated in April 2021 that around 8 000 Fatemiyounfighters were still kept in Syria and that the Quds Force maintained contact with the fighters in
Afghanistan. 437 In October 2021, the ACLED reported that the Syrian Tiyas airbase was held by
the Syrian government and partially by ‘pro-Iran militias, including the Fatemiyoun Brigade’. 438
In a TV interview with TOLOnews in December 2020, Javad Zarif, the then Foreign Minister of
Iran, stated that the Iranian government was prepared to ‘help the Afghan government
regroup these forces [the Fatemiyoun Brigade] under the leadership of the Afghan National
Army’ in order to support the fight against ISIL inside Afghanistan. 439 In December 2021,
Diyaruna 440 reported that the activities of the Fatemiyoun Brigade were ‘mainly focused on
projects and objectives in Syria’. However, the source further indicated that ‘worries continue
to grow’ related to the Iranian government’s plan for the Fatemiyoun Brigade in
Afghanistan’. 441 In an August 2022 article by Grant Farr, Professor Emeritus at Portland State
University, who has lived and worked in Afghanistan, the author indicated that there was ‘anexpectation that the Fatemiyouon may be sent to Afghanistan by Iran to protect the Afghan
Shia’ and that this had not occurred yet. 442

USIP, The Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 3
Schwartz, K. L., “Citizen Martyrs”: The Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade in Iran, April 2022, url, p. 97
430
Guardian (The), Afghan refugees in Iran being sent to fight and die for Assad in Syria, 5 November 2015, url
431
USIP, The Fatemiyoun Army: Reintegration into Afghan Society, March 2019, url, p. 5
432
Guardian (The), Afghan refugees in Iran being sent to fight and die for Assad in Syria, 5 November 2015, url
433
Freedom House, Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2022 - Iran, 24 February 2022, url
434
IranWire, Prominent Shia Afghan Accuses Iran of Exploiting His Countrymen, 13 April 2021, url
435
AA, Fatemiyoun, refugees trouble Iran-Afghanistan relations, 24 December 2020, url
436
TOLOnews, Transcript of TOLOnews Interview with Iran’s Javad Zarif, 22 December 2020, url
437
Sharifi, A., The Fatemiyoun Army: Iran’s Afghan Crusaders in Syria, The Diplomat, 23 April 2021, url
438
ACLED, Regional Overview – Middle East (2-8 October 2021), 13 October 2021, url
439
TOLOnews, Transcript of TOLOnews Interview with Iran’s Javad Zarif, 22 December 2020, url
440
Diyaruna is a news website sponsored by USCENTCOM; Diyaruna, About Us, n.d., url
441
Diyaruna, Shadow of Fatemiyoun militia looms over Afghanistan's future, 26 December 2021, url
442
Farr, G., Iran and Afghanistan: Growing Tensions after the Return of the Taliban, E-International Relations, 23
August 2022, url, p. 4
428

429

48

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESIn April 2022, Iranian media reported on the arrest of a former Afghan official for allegedly
attempting to recruit Afghan refugees to fight against Russia in Ukraine.443 In October andNovember 2022, various sources reported attempts by Russian military 444 or mercenary
forces 445 to recruit US-trained Afghan commandos and other security forces who had fled to
Iran after the Taliban takeover to join their ranks in Ukraine. 446 As of November 2022, RFE/RL
reported that about 15 former Afghan commandos had already joined the mercenary group.447

Iran International, Former Afghan Official Reportedly Detained In Iran For Recruiting Fighters, 10 April 2022, url
Al Jazeera, Russia recruiting US-trained Afghan commandos for Ukraine: Report, 1 November 2022, url; FP,
Russia’s Recruiting Afghan Commandos, 25 October 2022, url
445
RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan General Says Russia's Vagner Group Recruiting His Former Troops For Ukraine War, 1
November 2022, url
446
Al Jazeera, Russia recruiting US-trained Afghan commandos for Ukraine: Report, 1 November 2022, url;
RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan General Says Russia's Vagner Group Recruiting His Former Troops For Ukraine War, 1
November 2022, url; FP, Russia’s Recruiting Afghan Commandos, 25 October 2022, url
447
RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan General Says Russia's Vagner Group Recruiting His Former Troops For Ukraine War, 1
November 2022, url
443

444

49

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

2.

Movements of registered andunregistered Afghan refugees

2.1.

Overview
Movements into Afghanistan from Iran: August 2021October 2022

140,000
120,000
100,000
80,00060,00040,00020,0000

Aug Sep
2021

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan Feb
2022

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Figure 3: Overview of movements into Afghanistan from Iran: August 2021-October 2022, based on IOM data. 448

Figure 3 shows movements into Afghanistan from Iran between August 2021 and October
2022, as recorded by IOM.
According to UNOCHA, in the period between January and September 2022, 597 100 people
returned to Afghanistan from Iran, 449 while 1 240 000 returned in 2021, 420 000 in 2020, and
264 000 in 2019. 450

EUAA analysis based on IOM reports: IOM, Movement in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 - 31 October2022), 9 November 2022, url, p. 2; IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 August 2022),
2 September 2022, url, p. 1; IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 July 2022), 4 August
2022, url, p. 1
449
UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Snapshot of Population Movements, January – September 2022 (As of 22 September2022), 22 September 2022, url
450
UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Snapshot of Population Movements, January – December 2021 (As of 06 January 2022),
6 January 2022, url
44850

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESMedia sources cited numbers released by Afghan de facto Taliban authorities between Juneand August 2022, 451 including the return of 7 100 persons over the period of one week in June
2022, 452 and 7 000 persons over the course of two weeks in July 2022. 453
There are three official border crossing points between Iran and Afghanistan. Milak in theprovince of Sistan and Baluchestan, the Mahiroud border crossing in South Khorasan
Province, and the Dogharoon border crossing in Razavi Khorasan Province. 454 The
designations/names for the three major border crossing points between Iran and Afghanistan or respectively the names of the border towns on the Afghanistan side - were Islam Qala
(Dogharoon 455) in Herat Province, Abu Nasr Farahi 456 in Farah Province, and Zaranj (Milak 457 or
Silk Bridge 458 or Abresham crossing459) in Nimroz Province. 460
In February 2022, media sources reported daily return rates between 1 000 and over 2 000
persons at Islam Qala border crossing. 461 Taliban de facto authorities, cited by media, in June
and July 2022 mentioned returns from Iran via Zaranj (Milak) border crossing, 462 including
7 000 Afghan returnees over the course of two weeks. 463

2.2.

Cross-border ties and links to family/social
network in Afghanistan

Afghan nationals living in Iran faced several restrictions on their physical 464 and digital 465
mobility. While these restrictions depended on the migrants’ respective legal status, they had
an impact on their ability to move or communicate across the border.466 Almost 80 % of
respondents of the study on transnational digital practices who used social media at leastoccasionally, did so to stay connected with friends and/or family members in Afghanistan.
Mehr News Agency, Thousands of Afghan refugees return home each day: Taliban, 18 June 2022, url;
Afghanistan Times, Iran deports thousands of Afghan immigrants, 4 July 2022, url; Bakhtar News, Thousand
Refugees Head Back Home from Iran, 16 July 2022, url; Afghanistan Times, Iran, Turkey deport hundreds of Afghan
refugees, 27 July 2022, url
452
Mehr News Agency, Thousands of Afghan refugees return home each day: Taliban, 18 June 2022, url
453
Bakhtar News, Thousand Refugees Head Back Home from Iran, 16 July 2022, url
454
IRNA, Milak border crossing between Iran, Afghanistan reopened, 11 August 2021, url; Tehran Times, IranAfghanistan trade ties to be expanded, 11 December 2021, url
455
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 August 2022), 2 September 2022, url, p. 2
456
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation update – 1 August 2022, 1 August 2022, url, p. 4457
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 August 2022), 2 September 2022, url, p. 2
458
Mehr News Agency, Iran, Afghanistan to build new transit route, 18 September 2022, url
459
The Khaama Press News Agency, Abresham Crossing Between Afghanistan & Iran Reopens After Nearly Two
Weeks, 19 July 2022, url
460
Farr, G., Iran and Afghanistan: Growing Tensions after the Return of the Taliban, E-International Relations, 23
August 2022, url; UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 1 September 2022, 27 September 2022, url, p. 4
461
TOLOnews, Officials: 1000s of Afghans Cross Border With Iran Each Day, 27 February 2022, url
462
Afghanistan Times, Iran deports thousands of Afghan immigrants, 4 July 2022, url; Bakhtar News, Thousand
Refugees Head Back Home from Iran, 16 July 2022, url
463
Bakhtar News, Thousand Refugees Head Back Home from Iran, 16 July 2022, url
464
Such as no-go-areas or limitations in leaving one’s registered province (see above, section 4.1 Freedom of
movement).
465
Such as, e.g., the ban on buying a SIM card (see above, section 4.6 Financial and communications services).
466
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans in Iran, 2 July 2022, url,
p. 2
451

51

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Travel to Afghanistan, however, had been restricted for some groups such as refugees whose
status used to be tied to their actual presence in Iran. 467 Undocumented migrants, on the other
hand, engaged in irregular circular migration, illegally commuting between Iran and
Afghanistan. 468
Similarly, Afghans moved back and forth between Iran and Afghanistan depending on
employment opportunities and the chance to send home remittances. 469 According toLandinfo, contact with extended family, relatives and networks was important for all Afghans,also for those living abroad. An Afghan living in Kabul interviewed by Landinfo in March 2022
claimed that it was impossible to prevent Afghans from traveling, and he pointed to the strong
family ties within Afghan families. 470 During Nowruz holidays (mid-March – April) the returns(usually for seasonal workers) increase. 471 Another form of cross-border ties were Afghanfamilies paying for their children’s student visa, 472 or supporting them during their studies fromabroad. 473
Sussan Siavoshi noted that in the context of restrictive migration policies, human smuggling
played an important role and involved ‘a complex mix of both cross-border familial social
relations and for-profit enterprise’. Such networks included, among others, persons with‘communal ties’ to potential migrants in Afghanistan and family members already in Iran who
would pay a part of the smuggling costs. 474

2.3.

Situation at border crossing points

In June 2022 the UN Secretary General reported that ’Iran closed its borders to Afghanistan
on 16 August 2021, but subsequently re-opened them for Afghan passport-holders with valid
visas for Iran.’ Most Afghans, however, fled to Iran through unofficial border crossings. 475
The Islam Qala border crossing is used extensively for travel and trade activities. 476 According
to statements by the de facto Afghan Foreign Ministry, as of May 2022, approximately 1 400
people travelled to Iran on a daily basis at Islam Qala crossing, while 1 000 Afghans returned

Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans in Iran, 2 July 2022, url, p.
8. In order to renew their Amayesh card, card holders had to show that they have not left Iran (and had no judicial
records). UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement: For the attention of expired Amayesh/Hoviat cardholders, 11
September 2022, url
468
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans in Iran, 2 July 2022, url,
p. 7
469
MEE, ‘Nothing is certain’: The precarious lives of Afghans in Iran, 18 September 2021, url; Atlantic Council,
Afghan migrants: Unwanted in Iran and at home, 15 May 2020, url
470
Norway, Landinfo, Afghanistan: Utreise og retur etter Talibans maktovertakelse [Departure and return after the
Taliban's takeover], 29 September 2022, url, p. 4
471
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 24 November 2022
472
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
473
Kazemi, S. R., “A Future of One’s Own”: One young woman’s struggle to thrive in modern Herat, AAN, 21 June
2021, url
474
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url, p. 12475
UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3
476
AA, Iran closes Afghan border crossing after skirmishes with Taliban, 23 April 2022, url
467

52IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

daily at Islam Qala crossing point. 477 According to an update by IOM covering the second halfof July 2022, at Islam Qala crossing point a higher number of persons moved out of
Afghanistan than at the Zaranj crossing, while inflow figures into Afghanistan were similar atboth crossing points. 478
In March 2022 Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that 5 000 to 6 000 people wereleaving Afghanistan daily at Zaranj city, however the Taliban reportedly denied thenumbers. 479 According to AFP smugglers at Zaranj reportedly charge six million Iranian tomanfor driving migrants across the border into Iran and Taliban charge vehicles 1 000 Afghanis
each. 480 In April 2022 Al Jazeera published an article written by an Afghan who described hisjourney to Iran in January 2022. He entered Iran via the Islam Qala border crossing point andnotes that a visa to Iran costs between USD 87 and 130. According to the article, Afghans alsoneed a Covid-19 test in order to cross the border which costs another USD 10.481
In December 2021 the Iranian government closed the Islam Qala border crossing point due tothe outbreak of a new Covid-19 variant, resulting in hundreds of Afghans with visas being
stranded, 482 and in April 2022, following skirmishes between Iranian border guards andTaliban forces, the Islam Qala border crossing was temporarily closed. 483 As of May 2022,
Taliban – cited by Hasht-e Subh - said activities at the border crossing were back to normal. 484
The Zaranj (Silk bridge) border crossing was reopened on 18 July 2022 after it had beenclosed for two weeks following a skirmish between Taliban forces and Iranian border guards,
Taliban officials cited by the Khaama Press News Agency said. 485

2.4.

Enforced returns

According to UNHCR, Afghans who lacked valid documentation were at risk of deportation.
Between January and June 2022, law enforcement authorities targeted Afghans without valid
documentation in roundup operations. Informants told UNHCR that detainees were notdeported immediately but screened and, in some cases, allowed to remain in the country. An
increase in numbers of deportations is thought to be linked to perceptions of a negative
impact in the economy and job market by Afghans. 486
According to the June 2022 report of the UN Secretary General (covering the period between
11 June 2021 and 20 March 2022), there was an increase in deportations of Afghans fromHasht-e Subh, Daily, 1,400 Passengers Travel to Iran Legally from Islam Qala Port in Herat, 9 May 2022, url
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 July 2022), 4 August 2022, url, p. 2
479
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
480
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
481
Zia, H., I am now one of millions of Afghan refugees [Opinion], Al Jazeera, 16 April 2022, url
482
TOLOnews, Hundreds Of Afghans Waiting at Islam Qala Port to Enter Iran, 28 December 2021, url
483
AA, Iran closes Afghan border crossing after skirmishes with Taliban, 23 April 2022, url; The Khaama Press
News Agency, Iran-Afghan Border Closes by Iran after Skirmishes with Taliban, 24 April 2022, url
484
Hasht-e Subh, Daily, 1,400 Passengers Travel to Iran Legally from Islam Qala Port in Herat, 9 May 2022, url
485
The Khaama Press News Agency, Abresham Crossing Between Afghanistan & Iran Reopens After Nearly Two
Weeks, 19 July 2022, url
486
UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 4
477

478

53

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Iran, 487 although UNHCR in August 2021 had advised to not return Afghans. 488 According to
UNHCR, in January 2022, the average daily deportation rate was lowest at 1 000. In March
2022, UNHCR recorded an increase of the average rate to over 2 200 Afghans deported from
Iran. 489 According to IOM, 50 % (13 622) of all crossings of Afghans to Afghanistan in thesecond half of July 2022, 490 47% (13 447) in the first two weeks of August 2022, 491 and 44 %(18 775) in the second half of August 2022 were deportations.492 According to findings by
Pajhwok Afghan News published in September 2022, 231 000 Afghans returned from Iransince March 2022. 58.5 % of the returnees had been forced to return. 493 UNHCR estimatedthat 65 % of all Afghan asylum seekers newly arriving were deported. 494
Media sources cited numbers released by Afghan de facto authorities in August and July
2022 on the forced return of Afghans from Iran, 495 including the forcible return of 5 600
persons over the period of one week in the end of July 2022. 496
According to sources interviewed by Amnesty International (AI) for an August 2022 report on
unlawful returns of Afghans from Iran and Turkey, Iranian security forces transferred Afghan
deportees by bus to the official border crossings in Dogharoon (Islam Qala) or Milak (Zaranj).
Before transferring deportees to the border, they were held in detention centres. 497 Forcibly
returned Afghans were also brought to irregular border crossings by Iranian security forces,
where they had to climb over fences or crawl underneath them. Regarding immediate
pushbacks at the border, AI documented four cases of Afghans being pushed back
immediately or shortly after they had crossed the border into Iran. 498
During a visit at Islam Qala border crossing in March 2022, AI researchers witnessed buses
arriving from Iran and forcibly returned Afghans disembarking on the Afghan side of theborder. According to the Afghans interviewed by AI, security forces transferred Afghans who
were held in detention centres further inland to facilities near the border before they werereturned. Buses with deportees contained approximately 40 persons each and in some cases
several buses transferred a large group of people to the border. Armed members of the
security forces reportedly escorted the buses and some interviewees told AI that handcuffs or
blindfolds were used during their transfer. In some cases, AI was told that children wereamong the groups of deportees to Afghanistan. Persons forcibly returned by bus were forced
to pay a fee for each journey between detention centres, according to sources interviewed by
UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3
488
UNHCR, UNHCR issues a non-return advisory for Afghanistan, 17 August 2021, url
489
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 15 April 2022, 26 April 2022, url, p. 3
490
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 July 2022), 4 August 2022, url, p. 2
491
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (1 – 15 August 2022), 23 August 2022, url, p. 2
492
IOM, Movements in and out of Afghanistan Snapshot (16 – 31 August 2022), 2 September 2022, url, p. 2
493
Pajhwok Afghan News, Iran forcibly expels over 135,000 Afghans in 6 months, 11 September 2022, url
494
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 2
495
Afghanistan Times, Iran, Turkey deport hundreds of Afghan refugees, 27 July 2022, url; TOLOnews, Afghan
Officials: Iran Deported 5,600 Afghans in Past Week, 28 July 2022, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, 4,010 Afghans
return, deported from Iran: MoRR, 2 August 2022, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, 1863 Afghan refugees return from
Iran in single day, 26 August 2022, url
496
TOLOnews, Afghan Officials: Iran Deported 5,600 Afghans in Past Week, 28 July 2022, url
497
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 34
498
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url,
p. 28
487

54

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

AI. According to the testimonies documented by AI, the amount of money demanded by the
security forces varied significantly. Between USD 16 and 278 were charged for the transfer tothe Afghan border. Persons who could not pay were held or others had to pay for them.499 The
information above could not be corroborated by other sources.
In January 2022, Al-Mashareq, a news website sponsored by the United States Central
Command (USCENTCOM), cited a resident of Balkh Province in Afghanistan who had been
deported from Iran via the Islam Qala border crossing, stating that there were 40 buses with
deportees and the Iranian police made several stops on the way to the border, forcing
deportees to buy goods in Iranian shops. According to the aforementioned source, thedeportee had worked for a company in Isfahan for four months without being paid. The
deportee reportedly had asked for his wages, but the employer refused to pay. The citedresident of Balkh further claimed that on the way to the Afghan border, Iranian soldiers
extorted money from deportees. 500

2.5.

Voluntary repatriation

UNHCR facilitated the voluntary return of 868 Afghan refugees to Afghanistan from Iran in
2021 and 939 in 2020. In the period between 15 August and 31 December 2021, only 103
Afghan refugees returned voluntarily from Iran, despite the end of larger conflict events
following the Taliban takeover. Compared to the 447 returnees recorded during the same
period in 2020, UNHCR stated that this figure is ‘very low’ by comparison. UNHCR attributes
this decline to temporary border crossing point closures, the political context and thedeteriorating economic situation in Afghanistan.501
Between January and July 2022, UNHCR facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 225 people
from Iran to Afghanistan. Compared to the period between January and July 2021, voluntary
repatriations declined by 70 % ‘due to instability and the deteriorating humanitarian situationin Afghanistan’. In the year 2021 the highest number of repatriates was recorded in March with
177, and the lowest number in August with 16. 502
Media sources cited numbers released by Taliban de facto authorities in July and August2022 on the voluntary return of Afghans from Iran, 503 including 1 325 persons on 25 August2022 and 381 on 23 August 2022. 504

AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url,
p. 35
500
Al-Mashareq, Afghans in limbo as Iran bans them from entering even with legal documents, 11 January 2022, url
501
UNHCR, Afghanistan: Voluntary Repatriation Update (January - December 2021), 21 February 2022, url, p. 1
502
UNHCR Iran, Voluntary Repatriation Dashboard – July 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 1
503
Afghanistan Times, Iran, Turkey deport hundreds of Afghan refugees, 27 July 2022, url; TOLOnews, Afghan
Officials: Iran Deported 5,600 Afghans in Past Week, 28 July 2022, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, 4,010 Afghans
return, deported from Iran: MoRR, 2 August 2022, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, 1863 Afghan refugees return from
Iran in single day, 26 August 2022, url
504
Pajhwok Afghan News, 1863 Afghan refugees return from Iran in single day, 26 August 2022, url
499

55

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

2.6.

Legal requirements to return to Afghanistan andback to Iran for Afghan refugees

As noted above, Iran re-opened its borders to Afghanistan for Afghan holders of passports
and valid visas after closing them on 16 August 2021. 505
Holders of Amayesh cards must obtain permission for ‘any travel outside the province ofregistration.’ Attempted irregular crossing of borders leads to the cancellation of the Amayeshcard and deportation. UNHCR also noted that Afghans with expired Amayesh cards were at
risk of arrest, detention and deportation. 506
For information on requirements to reside and move legally in Iran, please see section
1.2. Legal status of Afghan refugees and section 4.1. Freedom of movement.
For information on returning to Afghanistan, please also see section ‘1.5. Leaving andreturning to Afghanistan’ of the August 2022 EUAA COI report on Afghanistan: Targeting ofindividuals, and section 10.1 Travel requirements and restrictions of the August 2022 EUAA
COI report on Afghanistan: Key socio-economic indicators in Afghanistan and in Kabul City.
No further information on requirements to enter Afghanistan and return to Iran for Afghan
citizens since the Taliban took power could be found.

UNSG, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran [Advanced Unedited Version], A/HRC/50/19, 16
June 2022, url, para. 3
506
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
505

56

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

3.

Border crossings and humansmuggling/trafficking of Afghan
refugees

The border between Iran and Afghanistan has three official crossing points (Dogharoun/Islam
Qala in the north, Abu Nasr-e-Farahi 507 in the centre, and Zaranj/Milak or Silk Bridge 508 or
Abresham crossing509 in the south510).511 The border contains active smuggling routes, 512 allreportedly sustained and operated by smuggling networks.513 It passes through highmountains and rough terrain, making it difficult for Iranian authorities to secure it. 514 There arevarious unofficial border crossings between the two countries, which often change.515 For
further information on the official border crossings, please refer to section 2.3. Situation atborder crossing points.
All official border crossings between Iran and Afghanistan were reportedly closed on
16 August 2021 for Afghans, except for those holding valid passports and Iranian visas.516 Thiswas reportedly still the case as of November 2021. 517 In April 2022, DW further reported that
Afghans were sent back to Afghanistan at the three official border crossings. 518 UNHCR
indicated that most Afghans crossed the border irregularly519 through unofficial bordercrossings. 520 UNHCR reported that irregular border crossings had increased since July 2021. A
majority of new Afghan arrivals into Iran reportedly occurred via informal crossing points in theeastern border provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, South Khorasan, and Khorasan Razavi. 521
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation update – 1 August 2022, 1 August 2022, url, p. 4
Mehr News Agency, Iran, Afghanistan to build new transit route, 18 September 2022, url
509
The Khaama Press News Agency, Abresham Crossing Between Afghanistan & Iran Reopens After Nearly Two
Weeks, 19 July 2022, url
510
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 1 August 2022, 17 August 2022, url, p. 4
511
AsiaNews, Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran, a humanitarian time-bomb also for Europe, 11
November 2021, url; DW, Afghanen fliehen in den Iran trotz verstärkter Abschiebungen [Afghans flee to Irandespite a rise in deportations], 8 April 2022, url
512
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [source: local NGO
worker], September 2022, url, p. 16; Reuters, Iran Summons Afghan Envoy After Protesters Throw Rocks at
Diplomatic Missions, 12 April 2022, url
513
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [source: local NGO
worker], September 2022, url, p. 16
514
DW, Afghanen fliehen in den Iran trotz verstärkter Abschiebungen [Afghans flee to Iran despite a rise indeportations], 8 April 2022, url
515
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [sources: local NGO
worker in August 2022 and member of an international humanitarian organisation in August 2022], September
2022, url, p. 16
516
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 45
517
BNN Bloomberg, Europe Urged to Do More to Help Afghan Refugees Arriving in Iran, 11 November 2021, url
518
DW, Afghanen fliehen in den Iran trotz verstärkter Abschiebungen [Afghans flee to Iran despite a rise indeportations], 8 April 2022, url
519
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 15 February 2022, 22 February 2022, url, p. 3.; TNH, For desperate
Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url
520
UNHCR Iran, New Arrivals from Afghanistan – 29 January 2022, 31 January 2022, url; USDOS, Country Reporton Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 45; WSJ, Iran Steps Up Deportations of Afghans
Trying to Flee Taliban and Poverty, 12 December 2021, url
521
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, pp. 6-7
507

508

57

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Most refugees crossed the border ‘with the help of smugglers’. 522 Media sources reported ofAfghan men, women 523, young men 524 , and children, 525 who had crossed or attempted to crossthe border into Iran. 526
Sources indicated that the Afghan city of Zaranj in Nimroz province was a hub for humansmuggling. 527 According to independent researcher David Mansfield 528 interviewed in July
2021 by RFE/RL’s Gandhara, 450 pickup vehicles carrying around 10 000 people were leaving
Zaranj daily, which amounted to almost a ‘doubling of departures since the announcement of
the U.S. withdrawal, with significant increases following the Taliban's advance’. 529 According tohuman smugglers in Zaranj, 5 000 to 6 000 individuals were daily crossing the border,
amounting to a fourfold of the numbers before the Taliban takeover in August 2021. 530 In
November 2021, NRC reported with reference to ‘locally reported figures’ that between 4 000
and 5 000 Afghans were crossing Iran daily via informal border crossings. 531 UNHCR in
September 2022 also reported with reference to authorities, that 4 000 to 5 000 irregulararrivals of Afghans into Iran had been reported, indicating in a map legend that this was ‘up to
three times the previously estimated daily average.‘ 532 However, NRC’s Jan Egeland in
November 2021 reportedly pointed out that it was not possible to track or register the
crossings due to insufficient resources.533
According to a December 2021 WSJ article, many Afghans entered Iran via smuggling routes
through the desert in Nimroz province at the meeting point of the borders of Iran, Pakistan and
Afghanistan. 534 The most common trafficking route started at the Zaranj border crossing andcontinued to the Pakistani border and then into Iran, 535 and in some cases via northwest Iraninto Van province in Turkey. 536 From Zaranj, the vehicles drove to the Pakistani border city
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022; url, p. 45
Akins, Matthieu, ‘We’ve Never Been Smuggled Before’, New York Times (The), 14 February 2022, url; Guardian(The), ‘I will reach Europe or die’: three stories of Afghan refugees in Turkey, 7 September 2022, url
524
Print (The), Heroin and human trafficking are the only two sectors of Afghanistan economy still thriving, 19
December 2021, url
525
Guardian (The), ‘I will reach Europe or die’: three stories of Afghan refugees in Turkey, 7 September 2022, url
526
Akins, Matthieu, ‘We’ve Never Been Smuggled Before’, New York Times (The), 14 February 2022, url; Guardian(The), ‘I will reach Europe or die’: three stories of Afghan refugees in Turkey, 7 September 2022, url; Print (The),
Heroin and human trafficking are the only two sectors of Afghanistan economy still thriving, 19 December 2021, url
527
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022; RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We
Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence Soars, 26 July 2021, url
528
Mansfield, D. authored an upcoming report for the Overseas Development Institute, a Britain-based think tankthat maps the revenue sources of different actors in the Afghan conflict, including the lucrative people-smuggling
trade‘; RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban
Violence Soars, 26 July 2021, url
529
RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence
Soars, 26 July 2021, url
530
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
531
NRC, Humanitarian needs in Iran rise as 300,000 Afghans arrive since Taliban takeover, 10 November 2021, url
532
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Update – 1 September 2022, 27 September 2022, url, p. 4533
BNN Bloomberg, Europe Urged to Do More to Help Afghan Refugees Arriving in Iran, 11 November 2021, url
534
WSJ, Iran Steps Up Deportations of Afghans Trying to Flee Taliban and Poverty, 12 December 2021, url
535
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022; TNH, For desperate
Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url; Mansfield, D., People smuggling is boomingin Afghanistan, 14 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing
Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence Soars, 26 July 2021, url
536
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [sources: local NGO
worker, member of an international humanitarian organisation, and research specialist in Turkey working for an
522
523

58

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Dak in Baluchistan province. There, the refugees were reportedly transferred into newvehicles. Then, they were driven to Iran through the Baluchistan desert and across thereportedly inhospitable 537 Mashkel Mountains.538 Other sources reported that the refugees
were handed over to other traffickers upon arrival at the Pakistani border, where they would
walk to the Iranian border by foot. 539 Crossing the Pakistani desert was dangerous for
Hazaras because of activities of fighters of the radical Sunni group Jundallah in the desert. 540
A Hazara man interviewed by AFP in March 2022 claimed that the group had beheaded
individuals in the past, before having switched to abducting people in demand for a ransom. A
September 2021 MEE article mentions that so-called ‘Shootis, usually domesticallymanufactured Peugeot 405s’, transported ‘undocumented migrants between the Iran-Pakistan
border and large Iranian cities such as Zahedan, Kerman, Yazd and Tehran’. 541
A September 2022 report by Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik indicated that ‘a smaller numberof Afghan nationals […] directly cross the Afghanistan-Iran border’ instead of taking the journey
to Iran via Pakistan. 542 AFP mentioned that some Afghans crossed the border wall in Zaranj atnight into Iran. The wall was five metres high and protected at the top with barbed wire andwatchtowers with armed border guards. 543 In an August 2022 report, AI mentioned that thewall in Nimroz province was two metres high. 544 AFP reported that traffickers bribed border
guards ‘to turn a blind eye to those scaling the walls at night’. However, the traffickers
sometimes reportedly deceived the refugees. Citing several Taliban fighters from the region,
AFP reported, that between September 2021 and March 2022, in the area, around 70 to 80
people had been ‘killed by Iranian bullets’. 545 According to AI, some Afghans attempted tocross the border by crawling underneath a fence near the official Islam Qala border crossing
in Herat province. 546
David Mansfield stated that the journey through Pakistan into Iran was hard. There werereports of Afghans having been ‘arrested, beaten, shot at, and even killed by border guards,
smugglers, and criminal gangs. Others have drowned or died of illness and exhaustion’. 547 As
reported by Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik in September 2022, ‘Afghan nationals attempting
to cross the Iranian border face a number of dangers and challenging conditions including ainternational NGO in August 2022], September 2022, url, p. 16; AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful
returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 6
537
RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence
Soars, 26 July 2021, url
538
RFE/RL/Gandhara , Escaping Afghanistan: People-Smuggling Thrives On Bribes To Taliban, 27 May 2022, url;
Mansfield, D., People smuggling is booming in Afghanistan, 14 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have
A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence Soars, 26 July 2021, url
539
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url; AFP, Freedom's
choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
540
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022; Akins, Matthieu, ‘We’ve
Never Been Smuggled Before’, New York Times (The), 14 February 2022, url
541
MEE, ‘Nothing is certain’: The precarious lives of Afghans in Iran, 18 September 2021, url
542
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [local NGO worker,
member of an international humanitarian organisation, and research specialist in Turkey working for aninternational NGO in August 2022], September 2022, url, p. 16
543
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
544
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 6
545
AFP, Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through the desert, 16 March 2022
546
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 6
547
RFE/RL/Gandhara, 'We Don't Have A Choice': Thousands Of Afghans Fleeing Abroad Daily As Taliban Violence
Soars, 26 July 2021, url
59EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

lack of food and potable water, poor accommodation, dangerous transportation, a lack ofgender sensitivity and privacy for washroom facilities, and lack of access to healthcare.’ 548
Reuters further reported frequent clashes between Taliban forces and Iranian forces at theborder of the two countries. 549 On 26 August 2021, analyst and consultant David Ramin
Jalilvand stated in an interview with FES that Afghan refugees were sometimes prevented
from crossing the border with the use of force, which had repeatedly led to fatalities. 550
USDOS reported in July 2022 that the Government of Iran had introduced legislation allowing
security officers to ‘open fire on vehicles suspected of transporting’ undocumented
migrants. 551 Iranian authorities have been accused of mistreating Afghans at the border552,
such as by beating, 553 harassment, 554 shooting555 or threatening to shoot556 and taking awaymoney. 557 There were also reports of killings of Afghan individuals by Iranian authorities. 558
Torture by human traffickers 559 and road accidents 560 as well as sexual harassment by‘bandits’ of women and girls travelling alone 561 were also reported. Thieves posed anothersecurity threat in the border area. 562 The New Humanitarian, in May 2022, also mentioned
reports of migrants who had been robbed while on the road in Pakistan. 563 As for potential
victims of human trafficking, USDOS, in its July 2022 Human Trafficking Report on Iran, statedthat the Iranian government ‘did not make efforts to screen for or identify trafficking victims […]prior to detainment or deportation’ of Afghan refugees. Afghan children, aged 14 to 17, who
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [source: member ofinternational humanitarian organisation on 18 August 2022], September 2022, url, p. 17
549
Reuters, One dead in clashes between Taliban, Iran border forces, Afghan police official says, 31 July 2022, url
550
FES, „Afghanische Geflüchtete sind in Iran mit vielfältigen Diskriminierungen konfrontiert" ["Afghan refugees
face multiple forms of discrimination in Iran"], 26 August 2021, url
551
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
552
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 5;
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url; Arab News, Taliban raise
concerns over ‘brutal treatment’ of Afghan refugees in Iran, 13 April 2022 url; RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And
Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran, 8 April 2022, url; MEE,
Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url; TOLOnews, Scoresof Iran-Bound Afghan Refugees Killed, 100s Beaten: Locals, 8 February 2022, url; AFP, Afghans flock to Iranianborder, but few can cross, 9 October 2021
553
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url; Arab News, Taliban raise
concerns over ‘brutal treatment’ of Afghan refugees in Iran, 13 April 2022 url; RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And
Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran, 8 April 2022, url; MEE,
Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url; TOLOnews, Scoresof Iran-Bound Afghan Refugees Killed, 100s Beaten: Locals, 8 February 2022, url; AFP, Afghans flock to Iranianborder, but few can cross, 9 October 2021
554
RFE/RL, 'Disgusting And Heartbreaking': New Videos Put Spotlight On Mistreatment Of Afghan Refugees In Iran,
8 April 2022, url
555
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 5;
MEE, Afghan refugees routinely killed by gunfire while trying to cross into Iran and Turkey, report says, 31 August
2021, url
556
Arab News, Taliban raise concerns over ‘brutal treatment’ of Afghan refugees in Iran, 13 April 2022 url
557
AFP, Afghans flock to Iranian border, but few can cross, 9 October 2021
558
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 5;
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url; TOLOnews, Scores of
Iran-Bound Afghan Refugees Killed, 100s Beaten: Locals, 8 February 2022, url; AFP, Afghans flock to Iranianborder, but few can cross, 9 October 2021
559
TOLOnews, Afghan Migrants Murdered, Abused by Human Traffickers: Officials, 11 August 2022, url
560
WSJ, Iran Steps Up Deportations of Afghans Trying to Flee Taliban and Poverty, 12 December 2021, url
561
Guardian (The), ‘I will reach Europe or die’: three stories of Afghan refugees in Turkey, 7 September 2022, url
562
Ridgeway and Stop the Traffik, Afghan Nationals in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia [source: member ofinternational humanitarian organisation on 18 August 2022], September 2022, url, p. 17
563
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url
548

60

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

entered Iran with the help of smugglers in the hope to find work, were turned over by thelatter ‘to employers who force them to work’. USDOS further indicated that the ‘increase in
Afghan migrants entering Iran, following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, likely includes
a greater number of unaccompanied and undocumented Afghan children seeking
employment in Iran, which may increase their vulnerability to exploitation’. 564
According to a September 2021 article by MEI, it was not difficult for refugees to cross the
Turkish border from Iran under ‘normal circumstances,’ because Iranians did not require a visa
to enter the country. However, Turkey had finished large parts of a planned ‘241-km, threemeter-high concrete wall’ along the border to Iran to prevent Afghan refugees from entering
into Turkey. 565 According to AI, it was common for Afghans who attempted to cross the
Iranian-Turkish border, to experience ‘pushbacks and other violations by Turkish security
forces’, 566 such as beatings. 567 The source reported that Turkish security forces used firearms
and shot at people who tried to cross the border,568 which had resulted in instances of killing
by Turkish security forces, including of teenagers. Furthermore, AI had documented ‘instancesof torture or other ill-treatment by Turkish security forces’. 569 According to an Afghan official ofthe department of Refugees and Repatriation of Herat cited by TOLOnews in August 2022,
Afghans in Turkey were furthermore harassed by thieves. 570

USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
MEI, The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?, 20 September 2021, url
566
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 6
567
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, p. 8;
RFE/RL/Gandhara, Fleeing Afghans Who Reach Turkey Get No Respite From Violence, Persecution, 5 September
2022, url; WSJ, Iran Steps Up Deportations of Afghans Trying to Flee Taliban and Poverty, 12 December 2021, url;
MEE, Afghan refugees routinely killed by gunfire while trying to cross into Iran and Turkey, report says, 31 August
2021, url
568
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url,
pp. 20-23; MEE, Afghan refugees routinely killed by gunfire while trying to cross into Iran and Turkey, report says,
31 August 2021, url
569
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, pp.
5, 7, 8570
TOLOnews, Afghan Migrants Murdered, Abused by Human Traffickers: Officials, 11 August 2022, url
564

565

61

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

4.

Internal mobility and socio-economic
situation of Afghan refugees in Iran

4.1.

Freedom of movement

Iran acceeded to the 1951 Refugee Convention in 1976, however, made reservations to four
articles, including Article 17 (wage-earning employment) and 26 (freedom of movement),
considering them ‘recommendations only’. 571 Already in 2001, the Iranian government had
decided to restrict the freedom of movement of foreign nationals, including Afghans, who until
then had been able to move freely in Iran. According to a report on Afghans in Iran by the
University of Turku, Finland, of February 2020, the policy foresaw the establishment of full andpartial no-go areas (NGAs), banning Afghans from living or travelling in these provinces, or
restricting their presence there. This policy has reportedly been implemented since 2007,
turning 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces into full NGAs, and 11 provinces into partial NGAs. 572 No
information could be found on whether these figures correspond to the actual number of fulland partial no-go areas in place in the reference period of this report. According to a map
published by UNHCR on its website showing the no-go areas for Afghan nationals in Iran as of
19 September 2022, such areas did appear to extend over a considerable part of the country,
however, no exact figures were provided. Afghans were not allowed to travel or reside inthese areas. 573 Afghans holding an Amayesh card and wishing to travel outside the province
where they were registered, had to obtain permission first, 574 and apply for a temporary
Laissez-passer (LP) document at their respective provincial office of the Iranian Bureau for
Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA). 575
Similarly, researchers Jussi Jauhiainen from the University of Turku, Finland, and Davood
Eyvazlu from the Iranian Sharif University of Technology, noted in an October 2020 peerreviewed article about social media use by Afghans in Iran, that refugees living ingovernment-run settlements, so-called guest cities or ‘guest settlements’ (also called ‘guest
towns’ or 'guest cities'), needed permission by the settlement’s manager if they wanted toleave the area where the guest settlement was located and travel to another county orprovince. Moreover, they needed permission from the central authorities if they wanted topermanently leave the guest settlement.576 Similar information was reported by Afghans bornin guest cities who were interviewed in an article by September 2021 Middle East Eye. 577
According to information provided by UNHCR on its website, Amayesh card holders were notallowed to obtain a driving licence, including for a motorcycle. It was therefore illegal for a
refugee to drive a vehicle. Persons holding an Afghan passport and an Iranian visa, however,
UNHCR, State parties, including reservations and declarations, to the 1951 Refugee Convention, September
2019, url, p. 9
572
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 22
573
UNHCR, Help Iran: What are the movement restrictions for Afghan and Iraqi nationals in Iran?, n.d., url
574
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 44
575
UNHCR, Help Iran: What are the movement restrictions for Afghan and Iraqi nationals in Iran?, n.d., url
576
Jauhiainen, J. and Eyvazlu, D., Entrepreneurialism through Self-Management in Afghan Guest Towns in Iran, 22
October 2020, url, p. 8;
577
MEE, ‘Nothing is certain’: The precarious lives of Afghans in Iran, 18 September 2021, url
571

62IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

were entitled to obtain a driving licence and also enjoyed greater freedom of movement
within Iran. 578
Undocumented Afghan nationals who had participated in the 2022 ‘headcount exercise’ were
only permitted to stay and travel within their registered province and were banned fromtravelling to other areas and provinces. 579 The headcount exercise was a census scheme for
undocumented Afghans in Iran to register until 30 June 2022 and upon payment of a fee withthe authorities. They would then receive a temporary residence slip 580 granting them someaccess to services and protection against deportation.581 By the end of August 2022,
approximately 2.2 million Afghan nationals had been registered and received temporary
headcount LPs. 582

4.2.

Education

More than 470 000 Afghan children, including 138 000 undocumented children, were enrolled
in primary and secondary schools during the 2020-21 academic year. However, while the
Iranian government claimed that Afghan children’s access to schools was granted, media
reports indicated that Afghans continued to face difficulties in getting access to education 583
Moreover, many Afghan refugee children were unable to obtain identity documents although
they were born in Iran. These children were often not able to attend schools or get access toother basic government services. School enrolment among refugees was in general higher
outside the 20 refugee settlements, where more resources were available, 584 and where 96 %of the refugees lived. 585
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) noted in November 2021 that Afghan children in Iranwere able to enrol in public schools regardless of the legal status of their parents. 586 UNHCR
Iran informed on its website that Iran began to allow the access of undocumented Afghanchildren to primary and secondary education in 2015. To enrol in a school, undocumented
foreign nationals needed a special education protection paper – a so-called ‘education
support card’ or ‘blue card’ - that was issued by the BAFIA and which served only forenrolment in schools in the province where it was issued. The document contained personal
information as declared by the applicant and was valid for one year, according to UNHCR. 587
Blue card holders had to register with a government website in order to receive an
appointment for the renewal of their cards. They could, however, still enrol with the old blue

UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement: For the attention of undocumented Afghan nationals who participated in theheadcount exercise, 3 August 2022, url
580
UNHCR, Help Iran: Headcount Exercise, n.d., url
581
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 16 May – 15 June 2022, 5 July
2022, url, p. 1
582
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 1
583
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 47
584
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 67
585
UNHCR, Islamic Republic of Iran – 2021 Plan Summary, 2021, url
586
NRC, Humanitarian needs in Iran rise as 300,000 Afghans arrive since Taliban takeover, 10 November 2021, url
587
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
578

579

63

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

card for the new school year and obtain a new card for the current year afterwards.588 Pupils
who were registered in the latest headcount plan (see above) were required to register at aschool at their place of residence with the headcount slip and the results of a medical
examination, after which they would receive an educational support card. 589 The card
prevented the child’s parents from being deported from Iran, according to a country report by
the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs of May 2022. Afghan children were allowed to attend
primary and secondary school without having to pay any school fees, although sometimes
schools might ask parents to contribute to school uniforms, textbooks or other items. 590
Researcher Hamed Seddighi noted in a co-authored article that some Afghan families hardly
could afford such contributions as well as other costs related to schooling, including thenecessary equipment to attend online-classes introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.591
Similarly, UNHCR reported in April 2022 on Afghan refugees struggling to pay for schoolrelated expenses increasing the risk of children being taken out of school and sent to work.
The UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) school feeding programme reportedly provided daily
school meals to 7 500 refugee pupils in 20 settlements across the country.592 Other UNHCRsupported educational programmes reportedly included literacy training for 7 000 refugees by
the Literacy Movement Organisation of Iran (LMO) and the DAFI 593 scholarship programme
providing financial assistance to about 510 refugee students.594
A law in 2020 allowed Iranian women married to foreigners to pass their citizenship to theirchildren, thus giving the children of Iranian women and Afghan men access to education
similar to Iranian children. 595 Until then, children of mixed marriages had been granted
citizenship only in case the father was Iranian. The new law allows Iranian mothers to apply for
citizenship for their children until they reached the age of 18 years. Children over 18 years
could apply for citizenship themselves. In both cases, a security check is required. 596 In thefirst six months since the law was passed in May 2020, about 75 000 people had reportedly
applied for ID cards based on the new law. In total, between 50 000 and 200 000 children of
non-Iranian fathers may have been affected by the lack of identity documents, who until thenhad been deprived of many basic rights, including the right to attend school.597
Access to higher education remained restricted. Amayesh card holders who wanted to study
at an Iranian university had to renounce their refugee status and obtain an Afghan passport

UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on enrolment of foreign students nationals without documents, 14 August
2022, url
589
UNHCR, Help Iran: BAFIA announcement: School registration of students who participated in the Headcountplan, 21 September 2022, url
590
Netherlands (The), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Algemeen ambtsbericht Iran [Country report Iran], May 2022, url,
p. 103591
Seddighi, H. et al., Education of Afghan refugee children in Iran: A structured review of policies, 11 August 2022,
url, p. 11; UNHCR, Afghan girl who waited years for school refuses to let her enthusiasm wane, 2 September 2020,
url
592
UNHCR Iran, UNHCR and WFP help refugee children stay in school and reach for their dreams, 10 April 2022, url
593
Deutsche Akademische Flüchtlingsinitiative Albert Einstein (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative)
594
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 2
595
Seddighi, H. et al., Education of Afghan refugee children in Iran: A structured review of policies, 11 August 2022,
url, pp. 6, 9-10596Radio Farda, Children With Iranian Mothers, Foreign Fathers To Receive Citizenship, 4 June 2020, url
597
MEE, Iran issues first ID cards to children born to foreign fathers, 5 December 2020, url
588

64IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

with student visa. 598 This required male Afghan aspiring students to return to Afghanistan andapply from there for a student visa before being able to re-enter Iran as students. Female
Afghan students had the alternative option to go to the Iranian Kish Island to obtain a student
visa. 599 According to a October 2021 announcement by the Iranian Ministry of Science,
Research and Technology and given the ‘still volatile’ situation in Afghanistan, Amayesh card
holders, including males, who needed to replace their card with a passport and student visa,
no longer had to return to Afghanistan, but could do so from Kish Island. 600 Nevertheless,
UNHCR noted in a report covering the period January to May 2022, that it had facilitated therepatriation of 124 Afghans, with 29 % of these returnees being individuals who were returning
to Afghanistan to obtain student visas to enrol at an Iranian university. 601 In a separate report
and with reference only to January 2022, UNHCR suggested the return of some Afghan
refugees to Afghanistan to get a student visa for Iran – instead of going to Kish Island - could
be associated with the voluntary package assistance they received.602 As of 17 November
2022, Afghan students could still apply for a student visa in Kish Island. 603

4.3.

Employment and livelihoods

According to USDOS, only refugees with work permits issued by the government were able towork. 604 Similarly, UNHCR noted that Amayesh card holders – who were entitled to stay in aprovince for a limited period of time – could apply for a work permit. If a permit was granted,
Amayesh card holders were allowed to work in certain predefined fields. Passport and visa
holders had more access to job opportunities, 605 while undocumented immigrants were notpermitted to apply for a temporary work permit and thus not able to seek legal employment in
Iran. 606 According to information provided on the website of the e-visa department of the
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), two documents were needed by individuals
applying for a temporary work visa, including a labour certificate from a ‘sponsor employer’ inIran, approved by the Labour Ministry, and the visa application. Eligible for submitting anapplication were specific professional groups such as skilled workers, medical or industrial
specialists, and engineers. 607
Employment restrictions for Afghan refugees were introduced in 2004, according to an article
from August 2022 by Sussan Siavoshi, Professor of International Affairs at Trinity University,
Texas. Only four categories of menial jobs were subsequently available to Afghan refugees.608
ACAPS noted in March 2021 that Amayesh card holders were limited to work in 87 different
598
Seddighi, H. et al., Education of Afghan refugee children in Iran: A structured review of policies, 11 August 2022,
url, p. 12; UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
599
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Afghans in Iran: Migration Patterns and Aspirations, 2020, url, p. 26; ODVV, Human Rights
Developments in Iran. Newsletter No. 31, November 2021, url, p. 5
600
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Student Visas, 26 October 2021, url
601
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 2
602
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and response in Iran 23 January 2022, 23 January
2022. url, p. 3
603
International organisation, Correspondence with EUAA, 24 November 2022
604
USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2021 – Iran, 12 April 2022, url, p. 47
605
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
606
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
607
Iran, MoFA, E-Visa New Application – Directory of Visa Categories, 2022, url
608
Siavoshi, S., Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies, 24 August 2022, url, p. 5

65

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

employment types, including construction, agriculture and other vocational industries. Thesejob sectors in many cases offered only seasonal employment and were particularly vulnerablewith regard to economic sanctions against Iran. In an article from September 2021, MEE
reported that sectors open for employment to Afghan refugees also included lime and brickkilns and other jobs such as handling sewage, garbage, chemical waste or chemical fertilisers.
These were jobs that Iranian citizens had little interest in doing, as MEE observed, while many
Afghan refugees were not able to find employment related to their skills or education. 609
Moreover, the fact that Amayesh card holders could only leave their province of residence forwork if they had a temporary Laissez-passer (LP) further complicated their search for work,
while some areas of residence were so small that it was difficult to find a job within thatarea. 610
An article by The New Humanitarian on Afghans trying to enter Iran noted that mostundocumented Afghans took jobs in the fields of agriculture and construction.611 According toFatemeh Aman, a non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, many undocumented
Afghans were employed as seasonal workers by Iranian entrepreneurs, including for example
pistachio producers, as cheap labourers for jobs where technology or equipment was notavailable. Seasonal workers were paid lower salaries than their Iranian counterparts and hadneither health insurance nor a work contract making it easy to dismiss them on short notice.
Due to a reduced demand for this kind of work in the past years (caused by the pandemic,
economic stagnation, inflation and currency devaluation), many seasonal workers had left Iran,as they had no longer earned enough to send money home. Subsequently, the number of
undocumented migrants leaving Iran in the period February to May 2021 was reportedly
94 000 fewer than the previous year. They had, however, begun to return with the Taliban’s
advance in 2021. 612 Amayesh card holders faced economic pressure due to rising prices andreduced job opportunities. 613 An Afghan refugee in Iran stated that even an educated Afghan
would only be able to earn about four million Iranian rials (EUR 95) 614 a month, if they were‘lucky’. 615 Lower participation rates in the renewal exercises for Amayesh cards indicated thatmany might face difficulties in affording the necessary fees. According to UNHCR, renewal
fees constituted an average 8 % of a refugee’s annual income, and women and girls faced agreater risk of being deprioritised when it came to choosing which household members would
renew their Amayesh cards and therefore be allowed to apply for a work permit. Not renewing
their cards, however, deprived individuals of services available only to card holders andincreased their risk of labour exploitation as they had to rely on unstable daily labour. As
UNHCR pointed out, this was particularly problematic for thousands of Afghan refugee
children, many of whom were engaged in child labour to support their families in Iran. 616
USDOS reported in its 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report on Iran that ‘Iranian and Afghan
refugee and migrant children, orphans, and children who are homeless or use the streets as a

MEE, ‘Nothing is certain’: The precarious lives of Afghans in Iran, 18 September 2021, urlFarzin, F. and Jadali, S., Freedom of movement of Afghan refugees in Iran, September 2013, url, p. 85
611
TNH, For desperate Afghans, risky crossings into Iran are worth chancing, 17 May 2022, url
612
Aman, F., The Afghan refugee crisis: What does it mean for Iran?, MEI, 20 September 2021, url
613
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url; UNHCR,
Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
614
Exchange rate from European Commission, Exchange rate (InforEuro), n.d., url, accessed on 30 September 2022
615
MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
616
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 18
609
610

66

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

source of livelihood in Iran are highly vulnerable to forced labour, and experts suggest childtrafficking is increasing’. 617

4.4.

Healthcare

According to UNHCR, primary health care was free for all irrespective of their documentation
status. 618 Primary health care included vaccinations, prenatal care, maternal and child health,essential medicines hand services such as family planning and was available at health posts
established in refugee settlements and in urban areas with a large refugee population. In
2022, UNHCR was providing support (including the procurement of medicines) to 134 healthposts. Moreover, in 26 of these health posts – most of them located in areas with a large
refugee population - UNHCR was also paying for the personnel costs of essential healthstaff. 619 A study on pregnant Afghan women in Tehran and their access to prenatal care foundthat some undocumented women were reluctant to visit health centres, especially those runby the government, as they expressed the fear that they might be deported. This concern wasparticularly prominent in the context of giving birth, where the parents’ identity documents
were necessary for issuing a health record and birth certificate. 620 While health centres andhospitals were obliged to issue delivery notes and birth certificates also to undocumented
persons, in practice they might face problems obtaining such certificates without valid
residence documents. 621
Since 2015, registered Afghan refugees 622 have been able to enrol in the national healthinsurance system through the Universal Public Health Insurance (UPHI) scheme. UPHI was
supported by UNHCR upon agreement with the BAFIA and the Iranian Health Insurance
Organisation (IHIO), and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH).623 Expenses
covered by the UPHI included hospital stays and para-clinical services (medicine, doctor’svisits, radiology and testing) if provided by specific hospitals affiliated with the MoH orcontracted with the IHIO, however, patients were required to pay a certain franchise fee
depending on the service provided. Enrolment was family-based and subject to the paymentof a monthly premium fee for each family member for at least 12 months and an annual
administration fee. 624 For the period February 2022 to February 2023, UNHCR announced
that it would pay the entire insurance premium fee for about 120 000 of the most vulnerable625
refugees and their families. 626 In general, UNHCR noted, neither undocumented migrants nor
passport holders had access to UPHI, although there were some exceptions with regard to
undocumented migrants in cases of extreme vulnerability. 627 Passport holders with an Iranian
USDOS, Country Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2021 – Iran, 29 July 2022, url
UNHCR, Help Iran: Announcement on Services Available for the Undocumented, 26 September 2021, url
619
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 2
620
Dadras, O. et al., “It is good, but I can’t afford it …” potential barriers to adequate prenatal care among Afghan
women in Iran: a qualitative study in South Tehran, 6 May 2020, url, p. 7
621
UNHCR, Help Iran: Birth Registration, n.d., url
622
That is, Amayesh card holders as well as those with a Laissez-Passer document. UNHCR Iran, Health Insurance
for Refugees, n.d., url
623
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 3; UNHCR, Help Iran: Health, n.d., url
624
UNHCR Iran, Health Insurance for Refugees, n.d., url
625Including persons with certain diseases such as Haemophilia, Kidney Transplant, Multiple Sclerosis and others.
626
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 3
627
UNHCR, Help Iran: Are you a person that UNHCR Iran can support?, n.d., url
617

618

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EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

work visa, however, could apply for health insurance through the Social Security Insurance
Organisation (SSO), 628 a health insurance organisation that covers all those who are employedin the formal private sector as well as their dependents. 629
According to UNHCR, refugees could get tested for Covid-19 free of charge at specific MoHaffiliated health centres. Moreover, foreign nationals, refugees and undocumented Afghans
were reportedly included in the country’s national deployment and vaccination plan. 630 The
Iranian newspaper Tehran Times, an English-language newspaper aiming ‘to air the voice of
the Islamic Revolution’ reported in August 2021, that all Afghans over the age of 75 were
eligible for free Covid-19 vaccination. 631

4.5.

Housing, land and property rights

As of May 2022, 96 % of refugees in Iran were living in urban areas among Iranian
communities, while 4 % of refugees lived in 20 refugee settlements in 12 provinces acrossIran. 632 According to WFP, about 32 000 refugees were living in these settlements as ofAugust 2022. 633 The settlements are managed by BAFIA, the immigration office of the Iranian
Ministry of Interior, 634 and are known in Iran as ‘guest cities’ or ‘guest towns’ (in Farsi,
mehmanshahr). Jauhiainen and Eyvazlu observed that this term referred on the one hand to
the urban character of the settlements and on the other hand to the initial perception of
Afghans refugees in Iran in the late 1970s as guests with an ‘immediate and permanent right’
to stay in Iran. 635 In addition to these long-standing settlements, UNHCR reported on thedevelopment of a new refugee camp, Niatak, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, and of two
transit centres - Mil 78 in South Khorasan and Dogharoon in Razavi Khorasan provinces, close
to the border with Afghanistan. 636 Moreover, UNHCR reported on government-run facilities
along the Afghan border such as Al-Ghadir (Sistan and Baluchistan province), Sefid Sang,
Fariman and Taybad (all Razavi Khorasan province) hosting new arrivals from Afghanistan.637 In
contrast to older reports about restricted access to ‘guest towns’ (see above, section 4.1,) WFP
noted in its annual report of 2021 that beneficiaries living in the 20 settlements faced norestrictions in entering and leaving these settlements. 638 Movement regulations wereapparently also in place in the reception/transition centre in Fariman, located close to theAfghan border in Razavi Khorasan province. UNHCR reported in June 2022 that newly arrived
UNHCR Iran, Health Insurance for Refugees, n.d., url
Bazyar, M. et al., What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of merging health insurance funds? A
qualitative policy analysis from Iran, 31 August 2020, url, p. 2
630
UNHCR, COVID-19 response in the Islamic Republic of Iran December 2021, 14 April 2022, url; UNHCR Iran, FAQ
on Covid-19 Vaccination, n.d., url631
Tehran Times, UNHCR concerned by Afghan refugees fleeing to Iran, 10 August 2021, url
632
UNHCR Iran, Factsheet January – May 2022, 6 July 2022, url, p. 3. A map by UNHCR, indicating the locations of
the 20 settlements as of December 2020, can be found here: UNHCR, Islamic Republic of Iran Refugee
Settlements, 9 December 2020, url
633
WFP Iran, Country Brief August 2022, 21 September 2022, url, p. 1
634
UNHCR Iran, Refugees in Iran, n.d., url
635
Jauhiainen, J. and Eyvazlu, D., Entrepreneurialism through Self-Management in Afghan Guest Towns in Iran, 22
October 2020, url, p. 2
636
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, p. 7
637
UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 19 October 2021, 19 October
2021, url, pp. 1-3
638
WFP, Iran (Islamic Republic of) Annual Country Report 2021, 31 March 2022, url, p. 16
628

629

68

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

Afghans had been allowed to move to the nearby town of Mashhad and received LaissezPassers (LPs) to leave the centre. 639 In March 2022, the government had relocated someAfghans from Fariman to the Torbat-e-Jam refugee settlement. As space in the settlement waslimited and facilities inadequate, UNHCR informed that it was working with its partners onrenovating and improving the settlement’s infrastructure (such as shelters or communal water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH) 640 facilities) to meet the needs of the growing number of
inhabitants. 641
The refugee settlements or ‘guest towns’ generally were situated on the outskirts of cities in
Iran’s central and eastern regions. Refugees were living in small brick houses, and thesettlements had facilities such as schools, health centres, sewing workshops, 642 shops, placesof worship and for leisure. Moreover, they had basic urban infrastructure, including electricity
infrastructure and a sewage system. Since a government decision in 2003 that guest towns
should become economically self-sustaining, each settlement has been jointly managed by agovernment-appointed Iranian manager and a refugee council from the respective
settlement’s inhabitants. 643
UNHCR observed in a report from March 2022 that Afghans newly arriving in Iran werepredominantly settling in urban centres, often living in overcrowded spaces. 644 UNHCR and
WFP noted that some of them might receive support from family members or other membersof the Afghan community in their place of residence. WFP, however, indicated that those who
do not have any support networks are ‘vulnerable’ to food insecurity or protection threats. 645
Afghans in Iran were reportedly struggling with high rents; 646 TOLOnews reported on Afghans
claiming that local officials in the Iranian province of Bushehr allegedly urged residents not torent homes to Afghans. 647 Al Jazeera noted in a June 2022 article that undocumented
Afghans were not able to engage in certain activities such as buying a house or apartment. 648
Although Iranian law banned foreigners, including Afghans, to buy or sell land, some Afghans
did acquire real estate using Iranian citizens as their cover. 649 A change of law after 2019
granted this right to foreigners having a company of their own, however not to individuals. In
practice, it was difficult for refugees to own a business, albeit not impossible. 650

UNHCR, Afghanistan situation: Emergency preparedness and Response in Iran 16 May – 15 June 2022, 5 July
2022, url, p. 2
640
NRC, NRC’s operations in Iran, August 2022, url, p. 2
641
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 3
642
MEE, ‘Nothing is certain’: The precarious lives of Afghans in Iran, 18 September 2021, url
643
Jauhiainen, J. and Eyvazlu, D., Entrepreneurialism through Self-Management in Afghan Guest Towns in Iran, 22
October 2020, url, pp. 2, 5
644
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, p. 9645
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan – 2021 Final Report, 31 March 2022, url, p. 9;
WFP, Iran (Islamic Republic of) Annual Country Report 2021, 31 March 2022, url, p. 17
646
Hasht-e Subh, Unkind Neighbor: Afghanistan’s Refugees Facing Challenges in Iran, 31 August 2022, url;
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees in Iran, Pakistan Call for UNHCR to Act, 31 July 2022, url
647
TOLOnews, Afghan Refugees Say Iran Officials Not Allowing Them to Work, 3 April 2022, url
648
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
649
Radio Farda, Iran Official Says Afghans Should Be Barred From Becoming Employers, 22 December 2019, url
650
Jauhiainen, J. and Eyvazlu, D., Entrepreneurialism through Self-Management in Afghan Guest Towns in Iran, 22
October 2020, url, p. 10
639

69

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

4.6.

Financial and communications services

4.6.1.

Financial services

In June 2021, UNHCR reported that the GoI announced a new policy to formalize access tobanking services for Afghan refugees in the country. Prior to the new policy, ‘some refugees
could access banking services but most could not’. 651 In 2022, sources reported that
undocumented Afghans are unable to 652 or face difficulties 653 in opening bank accounts.
According to an article by the newspaper Shargh, 654 in June 2022, the GoI, cut off banking
services to foreigners in Iran, particularly affecting Afghan immigrants. 655 According to a
spokesman of the Central Bank of Iran, foreign nationals would only be able to maketransactions (including card transfers and online shopping payments) of up to 100 million rial(converted to USD 305 in the article) per day. Once data on the identity of legal foreign
nationals has been obtained and verified, access would resume to normal. 656 Iran’s largest
lender, Bank Melli, ordered its branches to stop processing money transfers to and fromaccounts held by foreign nationals. 657
Since measures were taken in July 2022 in connection with combating the sale of flour on theblack market, bread could only be bought with a banking card. Afghans residing illegally or
legally in the country, were unable to buy bread in bakeries and had to borrow a card from afriend, their employer or their landlord. The article also notes that many Afghans hadreportedly been summoned by banks, which forced them to receive their cash balance andclose their accounts; a claim, the Central Bank denied, however. According to other sources
quoted in the article also the bank cards of some legally resident Afghans were blocked. The
article also cites Peyman Haghighat-Talab of the immigrant support association Diaran.
According to him, in recent years, immigrants had faced problems with bank accounts several
times. 658 As of September 2022, these bank cards had been blocked for over two months.
Some second and third generation Afghan immigrants with companies and online businesses
were also affected by these measures, disrupting their businesses. According to Peyman
Haghighat-Talab, the measure led to a new phenomenon. Some Afghans started renting cards
from Iranians for a monthly fee, risking that the official cardholder may steal money from therenter. 659

UNHCR, Iran policy change gives refugees access to banking services, 8 June 2021, url
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
653
AA, How Taliban takeover complicated Iran's refugee crisis, 20 June 2022, url; MEE, Afghan refugees face harsh
rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
654
The article was translated and published by Courrier International, a French newspaper which translates andpublishes excerpts of articles from about 1 500 international newspapers. Courrier International, Qui sommes-nous? [About us], url
655
Courrier International, Enquête. En Iran, les Afghans privés de carte bancaire et de pain [Survey. Afghans deniedbank cards and bread in Iran], 15 September 2022, url
656
Pars Today, Iran’s central bank limits access of foreigners to banking services, 2 July 2022, url; IRNA, CBI:
Authorized foreign nationals provided with banking services in Iran, 2 July 2022, url
657
Pars Today, Iran’s central bank limits access of foreigners to banking services, 2 July 2022, url
658
Exchange rate from European Commission, Exchange rate (InforEuro), n.d., url, accessed on 10 October 2022
659
Courrier International, Enquête. En Iran, les Afghans privés de carte bancaire et de pain [Survey. Afghans deniedbank cards and bread in Iran], 15 September 2022, url
651

652

70

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

4.6.2.

Communications services

In November 2018, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology,
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, said that Afghans with proper papers could use services
offered by Iranian mobile operators. For registering a SIM in Iran, a passport or resident permit
must be provided to the operators. 660 More recent sources reported in 2022 that
undocumented Afghans are unable 661 or face difficulties 662 in purchasing SIM cards for mobile
phones.
According to a study 663 on internet and social media use of Afghans in Iran, 83 % of the legallyauthorized Afghans had a mobile phone with internet access. They mostly lived in large cities
with full mobile network coverage. Refugees living in camps had the lowest share with 54.5 %,also due to poor network coverage in some camps. 72 % of undocumented immigrants had amobile phone with internet access. Of all respondents, 25 % had no mobile phone withinternet access and 23.7 % of all respondents were not satisfied with the internet access. 664
According to the study, many undocumented Afghans ‘did not know the tricks [to overcome
the regulations] to obtaining a proper SIM card, resulting in using the Internet less’. 665

4.7.

Legal aid and support services

UNHCR Iran, in collaboration with the BAFIA, provided legal assistance to refugees andasylum seekers in two ways: either through UNHCR-hired lawyers (UHL) or through Dispute
Settlement Committees (DSC). UHLs provided free-of-charge legal assistance to all persons ofconcern for UNHCR, documented and undocumented persons equally, regardless of theirnationality. DSCs, on the other hand, were only available to Amayesh card holders facing legal
disputes with other Afghans or Iranian nationals. DSCs were operated by the BAFIA and wereusually based in the BAFIA’s provincial offices. 666 UNHCR-hired lawyers participating in DSC
meetings would support Amayesh card holders in resolving disputes through alternative
dispute resolution mechanisms.667 According to UNHCR, in the period January to June 2022,
16 DSCs and 17 UHLs were working across the country and had provided legal aid to 2 048
persons supported by UHLs and 568 persons supported through DSCs respectively. 668

Financial Tribune, Afghans With Bona Fide Can Buy SIM Cards in Iran, 18 November 2018, url
Al Jazeera, What does the future hold for Afghan refugees in Iran?, 12 June 2022, url
662
AA, How Taliban takeover complicated Iran's refugee crisis, 20 June 2022, url; MEE, Afghan refugees faceharsh rules in Iran and Taliban persecution at home, 12 March 2022, url
663
The data used in the study is based on a survey of 2 003 Afghans living in Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Kerman,
smaller urban areas and villages in the provinces of Kerman and Razavi Khorasan, and four guest settlements indifferent parts of Iran. 60.5 % of the respondents had a refugee status, 22.3 % had another legal authorisation tostay in Iran and 17.2 % had no legal permission to stay in Iran. Data was collected in October 2017 and in the period
June to September 2019. Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans inIran, 2 July 2022, url, p. 4
664
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans in Iran, 2 July 2022, url,
p. 5
665
Jauhiainen, J. et al., Digital divides, the Internet and social media uses among Afghans in Iran, 2 July 2022, url,
p. 6
666
UNHCR, Help Iran: Legal Services (UNHCR-Hired Lawyers and Dispute Settlement Committees), n.d., url
667
UNHCR Iran, Legal Support, n.d., url
668
UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 4
660
661

71

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUMUNHCR reported on the detention and deportation of Afghans who had illegally entered Iranor had been apprehended without valid documents.669 AI noted in a report of August 2022
that under Iranian law, illegally entering the country was punishable by imprisonment or a fine.
However, according to individuals interviewed for the report who had been detained, Iranianauthorities had not provided detainees with any information on the reasons for detention, oron available legal remedies. Moreover, none of the interviewees had had access to a lawyer,nor did they ask for legal aid, either for lack of knowledge about their rights or out of fear.
None had the possibility to challenge the detention before a judge, according to AI. 670
Other support services offered by UNHCR Iran included counselling of ‘refugees, asylumseekers and persons at risk of statelessness with protection concerns’ as well as psychosocial counselling, especially for highly vulnerable persons. 671 For the latter purpose, one parttime counsellor was hired per office (field office Tehran, field unit Isfahan, and sub-offices
Kerman, Mashhad and Shiraz) and 872 persons had received psycho-social counselling in thefirst six months of 2022. 672 UNHCR also provided support in resettlement cases and withvoluntary returns to Afghanistan, 673 the latter, however, only to Amayesh card holders andmandate Afghan refugees registered with UNHCR.674 As of 31 August 2022, UNHCR had
assisted in the voluntary return of 246 Afghans to their country of origin since the beginning of
this year. 675 Moreover, UNHCR collaborated with the Iranian government and local NGOs inseveral programmes aimed at improving the situation of Afghans in Iran, including technicaland vocational training for refugees, 676 as well as in the fields of health care (see above,
section 4.4), and education (see above, section 4.2). 677 In addition, UNHCR provided cash
assistance to individuals and was engaged in awareness raising and information
dissemination activities on issues such as resettlement, UNHCR services, the Iranian
government’s headcount exercise, bank-related issues for new arrivals and others. 678 The
Regional Refugee Response Plan for 2022 included support programmes for Afghans alreadyliving in Iran or newly arriving, as well as for host communities. The programmes covered
areas such as education, food security, WASH, protection, and others and were to be
implemented by UNHCR in collaboration with 16 partner organisations, including other UN
agencies, ICRI, INTERSOS, MSF, NRC and RI. 679 Moreover, UNHCR Iran listed on its website
several local partner organisations,680 such as the Society for Recovery Support (SRS) and theRebirth Charity Organization (Rebirth), which provide support for substance abusers but also
implement projects for refugees. 681 Other local partner NGOs included organisations active in

UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 4
AI, ’They don’t treat us like humans’: Unlawful returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran, 31 August 2022, url, pp.
31-32
671
UNHCR, Help Iran: UNHCR Counselling, n.d., url; UNHCR, Help Iran: Psycho-Social Support, n.d., url
672
UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, p. 2
673
UNHCR, Help Iran: What are the main services for asylum-seekers and refugees in Iran?, n.d., url
674
UNHCR, Help Iran: Voluntary Repatriation (UNHCR-Facilitated Return), n.d., url
675
UNHCR Iran, Afghanistan Situation Response in Iran – 31 August 2022, 29 September 2022, url, p. 2; UNHCR,
Iran Operational Data Portal, n.d., url, accessed 18 October 2022
676
UNHCR, Help Iran: Work, n.d., url
677
UNHCR, Help Iran: What are the main services for asylum-seekers and refugees in Iran?, n.d., url
678
UNHCR Iran, Protection Dashboard - Jan to Jun 2022, 23 August 2022, url, pp. 1-2
679
UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation Regional Response Plan January – December 2022, 12 January 2022, url, p. 24
680
UNHCR Iran, About us: Partners and Donors, n.d., url
681
Rebirth, Home, n.d., url
669

670

72

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

support of women and children, such as the Pars Development Activists Institute (PDA) 682, theIranian Life Quality Improvement Association (ILIA) 683, the Kiyana Cultural and Social Group(KIYANA) 684 , as well as the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) 685. Some ofthese organisations were also mentioned in a report by the Swiss State Secretariat for
Migration (SEM) of March 2022, in addition to two other Iranian organisations working withrefugees: the Association for Protection of Refugee Women and Children (HAMI) 686 and the
Omid Foundation. 687 The latter, however, was reportedly deregistered in August 2019, 688 andcontinued its activities online from abroad. 689 The Iranian Diaran Association is working in thefield of advocacy and research on immigration. 690

PDA, Home, n.d., url
ILIA, Home, n.d., url
684
Kiyana, Home, n.d., url
685
ODVV, Home, n.d., url
686
HAMI, Home, n.d., url
687
Switzerland, SEM, Focus Pakistan / Iran / Türkei: Situation afghanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten [Situation of
Afghan Migrants], 30 March 2022, url, p. 23
688
Akbarzadeh, S. et al., Registered NGOs and advocacy for women in Iran, 29 March 2021, url , p. 1482
689
OMID Foundation, Home, url
690
Diaran, Home, n.d., url
682
683

73

EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUM

Annex 1: Bibliography
Oral sources
International organisation, correspondence with EUAA on 17 November 2022

Public sources
AA (Anadolu Agency), 'Cruel' action on Afghan refugees in Iran sparks outrage, 26 April 2022,
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/cruel-action-on-afghan-refugees-in-iran-sparksoutrage/2573111, accessed 17 October 2022
AA (Anadolu Agency), Fatemiyoun, refugees trouble Iran-Afghanistan relations, 24 December
2020, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/fatemiyoun-refugees-trouble-iran-afghanistanrelations/2087031, accessed 19 October 2022
AA (Anadolu Agency), How Taliban takeover complicated Iran's refugee crisis, 20 June 2022,
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/how-taliban-takeover-complicated-irans-refugeecrisis/2617827, accessed 11 October 2022
AA (Anadolu Agency), Iran closes Afghan border crossing after skirmishes with Taliban,
23 April 2022, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/iran-closes-afghan-border-crossing-afterskirmishes-with-taliban/2571219, accessed 19 October 2022
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J., Glazebrook, D., Jamshidiha, G., Mahmoudian, H. and Sadeghi, R., Kabul.
Return to Afghanistan? A Study of Afghans Living in Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran, AREU
(Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit), October 2005, available at:https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/C5B61D78C2837165492570980023044
B-areu-afg-12oct.pdf, accessed 27 September 2022
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J., Glazebrook, D., Jamshidiha, G., Mahmoudian, H. and Sadeghi, R.,
Second-generation Afghans in Iran: Integration, Identity and Return, AREU (Afghanistan
Research and Evaluation Unit), April 2008, available at:https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4846b2062.pdf, accessed 27 September 2022
ACAPS, Humanitarian Access Overview, December 2021, available at:https://reliefweb.int/attachments/ea92bcb5-44cc-3807-98410eb675d4bb28/acaps_humanitarian_access_overview_december_2021_0.pdf, accessed
17 October 2022
ACAPS, Iran: Afghan refugees – Overview, 4 July 2022,
https://www.acaps.org/country/iran/crisis/afghan-refugees, accessed 20 October 2022

74

IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES

ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project), Regional Overview – Middle East (28 October 2021), 13 October 2021, https://acleddata.com/2021/10/13/regional-overview-middleeast2-8-october-2021/, accessed 19 October 2022
Adelkhah, F. and Olszewska, Z., The Iranian Afghans, in: Iranian Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2, Afghan
Refugees, April 2007, available by subscription at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4311887,
pp. 137–165, accessed 27 September 2022
Afghanistan Times, Iran deports thousands of Afghan immigrants, 4 July 2022,
https://www.afghanistantimes.af/iran-deports-thousands-of-afghan-immigrants/, accessed
19 October 2022
Afghanistan Times, Iran, Turkey deport hundreds of Afghan refugees, 27 July 2022,
https://www.afghanistantimes.af/iran-turkey-deport-hundreds-of-afghan-refugees/, accessed
19 October 2022
AFP (Agence France-Presse), Afghans flock to Iranian border, but few can cross, 9 October
2021, available by subscription at: https://www.dowjones.com/professional/factiva/, accessed
18 October 2022
AFP (Agence France-Presse), Freedom's choice for Afghans: Over the wall or through thedesert, 16 March 2022, available by subscription at:https://www.dowjones.com/professional/factiva/, accessed 18 October 2022
AFP (Agence France-Presse), Iran hangs extremist accused of murdering Shiite clerics,
20 June 2022, available by subscription at: https://www.dowjones.com/professional/factiva/,
accessed 10 October 2022
AFP (Agence France-Presse), Iran water protesters attack Afghan vehicles: state media,
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IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESUNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Iran, Voluntary Repatriation
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EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR ASYLUMUNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Help Iran: Legal Services (UNHCRHired Lawyers and Dispute Settlement Committees), n.d., https://help.unhcr.org/iran/en/whatare-the-main-services-for-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-in-iran/legal-services-unhcr-hiredlawyers-and-dispute-settlement-committees/, accessed 19 October 2022
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IRAN – SITUATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEESVOA (Voice of America), Taliban Make Millions From Passports Issued to Fleeing Afghans,
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Annex 2: Terms of Reference
The terms of reference were drafted by EUAA in consultation with the COI Specialist Network
on Iran.
The content of the report should contain information on the following topics:
•
•

•

•
•
•
•

Overview of key refugee inflows from Afghanistan to IranLegal status of Afghan refugees
 Demographics and locations of those with/without legal status Legislation and policies
 Types of legal status
 Rights and obligations under each legal status, including documentation oflegal status
 Restrictions/barriers to obtaining legal status
 Access to Iranian citizenship for Afghan refugees, including prevalence
Situation and treatment of Afghan refugees, particularly since August 2021 Taliban
take-over of Afghanistan
 Societal attitudes and treatment of registered, unregistered, andundocumented Afghans, including extent of integration into Iranian society Treatment by authorities
 Recruitment of Afghan refugees to fight for Iran in foreign countries, including
prevalence (e.g. Fatemiyoun movement)
Access to other civil documentation
Return to Afghanistan of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees
Border crossings and human smuggling/trafficking of Afghan refugees, including
prevalence and treatment
Internal mobility and socio-economic situation of Afghan refugees in Iran
 Freedom of movement
 Education
 Employment and livelihoods
 Healthcare Housing, land and property rights
 Financial and communication services
 Legal aid and support services
 Cross-border ties and links to family/social network in Afghanistan

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101