At the end of May, the Islamic Republic gave ‘until 6 July’ to ‘four million illegal Afghans’ to leave Iran. It should be noted that the vast majority of Afghan refugees living in Iran do not have valid identity documents, but contrary to the authorities’ claims, the deportations do not only concern so-called ‘illegal’ migrants.

 Hatred as policy

Afghan refugees are being pushed out by the Islamic Republic, which is waging a hate campaign against them.

Numerous reports indicate that among those deported were people with valid passports or residence permits. Many of them were even born in Iran and have only Afghan parents. They are stripped of their belongings before being deported. According to videos released, regime agents arrest Afghans and demand bribes before forcibly sending them to camps for deportation. If a migrant has no money, they are violently forced onto trucks and sent to the camp.

The regime’s security forces have announced that renting any property to Afghan migrants is now prohibited. In the event of a violation, the contracts concerned will be invalidated and the property sealed and confiscated.

For others, the Tehran regime has decided to block their credit cards in order to speed up ‘remigration’.

Crédit Photo. Photothèque Rouge / Martin Noda / Hans Lucas

 Afghans, scapegoats

Since the advent of the Islamic Republic, Afghans have always been scapegoats. The Tehran regime has always used racism as a weapon to mask its own responsibilities for the disastrous situation in Iran. Today, these measures are part of the Islamic Republic’s deliberate strategy to divert attention from domestic crises, including corruption, hyperinflation, unemployment and economic collapse.

The Islamic Republic is using state media and social media to intensify its anti-Afghan policy. If a rape or murder occurs, the media attributes it to Afghans without any investigation. State media link water and electricity shortages, as well as high bread prices, to the presence of Afghan refugees.

The Islamic Republic is using state media and social networks to intensify its anti-Afghan policy.

But the reality is quite different. The incompetence and corruption of the Islamic Republic’s leaders are reflected in the government’s inability to provide water, electricity and basic services to the population.

 A diversionary measure by the regime

In the aftermath of the Israeli-US attack, the Islamic Republic intensified the deportations of Afghans.

The humiliating failure of the Tehran regime in terms of intelligence and security against the CIA and Mossad during the Israeli-US attack has become a new pretext to justify the repression against Afghan immigrants. Seeking to cover up their intelligence failure, the Islamic Republic’s security and law enforcement agencies have pursued two policies simultaneously.

First, they have intensified repression against political, civil, trade union, cultural and social activists accused of being ‘Mossad spies’. Second, they have intensified pressure on Afghan immigrants and refugees and carried out mass deportations, also accusing them of ‘collaboration with Israel’.

 Afghanistan, a collapsed country

The living conditions of Afghans in Iran are dire. Afghan workers are among the most exploited in Iran. They have always been persecuted, deprived and humiliated. Deprivation of social security and social services, deprivation of housing in many provinces, arbitrary detention and violent expulsion after arrest, summary trials and summary executions are only a small part of the suffering inflicted on Afghan refugees.

Afghan refugees in Iran fled a country that has been at war since the Soviet invasion of 1979. A country devastated by US imperialist intervention, Pakistani and Saudi interference, the religious obscurantism of the Taliban, segregation of women, poverty and misery.

Many of the young Afghans in Iran have never known Afghanistan. Afghan girls educated in Iran are now being expelled en masse and sent back to the Taliban regime. Like their parents, who have been working in Iran for decades, they should all be considered Iranian and enjoy equal rights.

 Trade union response to injustice

In this context, the Free Union of Iranian Workers and the Vahed union (Tehran and suburban public transport workers) have issued two statements against the racist policies of the Islamic Republic. These statements by respected activist networks are important. They come a few days after a public letter signed by more than 1,300 activists, artists and journalists condemned the treatment of Afghan migrants. In their letter, the signatories stress that silence in the face of the actions of those in power risks turning ordinary citizens into accomplices of injustice.

A public letter signed by more than 1,300 activists, artists and journalists condemned the treatment of Afghan migrants

The Islamic Republic is not only a reactionary capitalist dictatorship, it is also a structurally racist and misogynistic state. It is urgent to amplify the voices of those fighting in Iran for social justice, equality and democracy.

Babak Kia