Iran International
In the midst of mounting economic pressure, international isolation and a series of military setbacks, Iran has launched a drive to deport Afghan migrants, marking the impoverished community's latest blow amid the vagaries of official policy.
According to the UN International Organization for Migration, nearly 700,000 Afghans were deported from Iran in the first half of 2025. A full 130,000 were expelled within just one week after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Many had lived in Iran for decades.
Far from an aberration, the recent wave of arrests, public humiliation and mass expulsions of Afghan migrants is a continuation of Tehran's decades-old political manipulation of one of the most vulnerable populations in the region.
The Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously declared that "Islam has no borders" and welcomed Afghan refugees fleeing a Soviet invasion in 1979.
But beyond this ideological gesture, Tehran never offered a clear legal or humanitarian framework for integration. Millions of Afghans entered Iran, only to be denied citizenship, legal employment or access to education and healthcare.
Over the decades, Afghan migrants have been treated as expendable tools in Tehran’s shifting policies in the region.
They were recruited to fight in Syria as part of the “Fatemiyoun” Brigade, exploited as cheap undocumented labor inside Iran and periodically threatened with mass expulsion in bouts of official populism.
During moments of domestic discontent, Afghan migrants became convenient targets to deflect public anger.
Under President Ebrahim Raisi, the policy of exploitation took on new dimensions. In the wake of the Taliban's return to power in 2021, a massive influx of Afghan refugees entered Iran and as many as around two million Afghans crossed the border within two years.
Rather than developing a comprehensive migration policy, Tehran allowed its border regions to turn into chaotic transit points run by smugglers and corrupt officials.
Xenophobia
In the aftermath of Israel’s devastating strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites, domestic frustration reached boiling point.
The Islamic Republic, seeking to redirect the public's discontent, amplified xenophobic narratives portraying Afghans as a threat to national security.
Despite isolated claims of rising crime among Afghans, official figures show otherwise.
Iran's judiciary reports that Afghan nationals comprise only about 6% of the prison population—roughly in line with their proportion of the total population. The majority of these arrests are for undocumented entry or labor violations, not violent or organized crime.
Ghosts of policies past
In 2001, following the fall of the Taliban, I traveled to the border town of Taybad and the nearby Islam Qala crossing and I was able to personally witness the brutal consequences of this policy.
There, I saw mass graves of Hazara refugees who had been forcibly returned by the Islamic Republic and summarily executed by Taliban fighters in the deserts surrounding the town.
Tehran knew that these Shia Hazaras were at extreme risk, yet still arrested them in Iranian cities, detained them in camps in the east and deported them into the hands of their eventual killers. This memory haunts me to this day.
The recent expulsions have also generated heartbreaking testimonies. Haajar Shademani, a 19-year-old Afghan born in Shiraz, told AFP she was forced to leave the only home she ever knew.
Denied access to Iranian universities and now blocked from education under Taliban rule, she faces an uncertain future.
The Islamic Republic’s interference in Afghanistan has extended far beyond its borders. Over the past two decades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through its Ansar Corps based in eastern Iran, has pursued an interventionist policy in Afghan affairs.
Military and intelligence advisors operated on the ground while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a dedicated Afghanistan Affairs Office, often in conflict with the IRGC’s goals.
These interventions disrupted Afghanistan’s internal balance and forced thousands more civilians to flee.
Moreover, Tehran deliberately resettled the families of Afghan political and military elites inside Iran, creating dependencies that undermined Afghan sovereignty.
This too was part of a broader strategy: open-door policies were never humanitarian in intent—they were designed to serve Iran’s strategic interests.
As Tehran continues to wage psychological warfare against Afghan migrants, reports of mob violence, arson, and public beatings have become more frequent.
In this climate of state-sanctioned hostility, ultra-conservative media figures portray any defense of Afghan rights as treason.
Policymakers and human rights advocates in Washington and European capitals should call out Tehran's exploitation of Afghan refugees.
This community is not a plaything—Afghans are survivors of a conflict-plagued country, and their dignity must not be sacrificed for political expediency.
Afghan migrants deserve justice, protection, and the chance to live free from fear—not another generation of displacement and death.
"Some of our air defenses were damaged, this is not something we can hide, but our colleagues have used domestic resources and replaced them with pre-arranged systems that were stored in suitable locations in order to keep the airspace secure," Mousavi added.
During the June conflict, Israel's air force took control of Iranian airspace, delivering a significant blow to the country's air defenses, while Iran's armed forces responded with successive waves of missile and drone attacks on Israeli territory.
“We were able to cover the skies using existing and new systems, securing the airspace of our dear Iran,” he said. “The enemy, despite its desperate efforts, failed to achieve its goals.”
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, also echoed that message. “Air defense proved on the front lines of protecting Iran’s skies that it will resist any level of threat,” he said. “Downing so many enemy aircraft shows the courage and will of our defenders.”
Iran says it has downed several Israeli fighter jets but has not provided any footage or additional details.
Israeli forces struck targets across Iran freely during the 12-day war, including in and around the capital.
Israeli military officials say that 120 air defense systems were destroyed or disabled since the first wave of attacks—around a third of Iran’s pre-war total. Long-range systems, including Russian-supplied S-300s and Iran’s Bavar-373 batteries, were among those targeted.
“Iran relied on a fragmented mix of Russian S-300s, Chinese batteries, and local Bavar-373 systems – none of which were adequately integrated… The air defense radar was Russian and Chinese made, which have known issues of target discrimination, without any integration among bases and military units,” wrote the Global Defense Corp.
Mossad operations and precision strikes
In late June, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the military to prepare an enforcement plan against Iran, which includes maintaining air superiority, blocking missile development, and deterring Iran's regional activities.
The plan, according to Katz’s, aimed to ensure Israel can respond kinetically to future threats.
A security source speaking to N12 also said Mossad operatives inside Iran played a central role in shaping the battlespace, deploying loitering munitions and attack drones, and establishing a covert launch site in the heart of Iran to suppress air defenses.
The War Zone website, a resource for the defense industry, released more details of Iran’s defense being destroyed.
“Among the targets reportedly prosecuted by Israeli operatives within Iran was an air defense site near Tehran. Shortly before the operation began, Israeli drones launched from within Iran struck surface-to-air missile launchers there, clearing the way for the larger strike, which also involved Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets."
"This would also explain the apparent inactivity by Iranian air defense sites during the Israeli bombardment. At the same time, the IAF has also been flying suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) operations that the service says have destroyed “dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers,” wrote the website.
Airspace remains exposed
Iran’s geographic scale -- roughly 1.6 million square kilometers -- poses a constant challenge for integrated air defense. The Islamic Republic lacks a modern fighter fleet to complement its missile systems and has relied on Cold War-era aircraft. Several of these have been destroyed on the ground in recent strikes, according to Israeli military imagery.
After limited Israeli strikes targeted Iranian missile factories last October, Iran later showcased Russian-made air defenses and its Bavar-373 system to project defensive strength, but Israeli aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighters, encountered little documented resistance during the 12-day conflict.
