Iran Deports Millions of Afghan Refugees Amid Severe Financial Pressures

Iranian Interior Minister, Eskandar Momeni, announced that his country has deported about 1.2 million Afghan refugees over the past six months, confirming that authorities are preparing to deport another 800,000 by next year as part of a migration control policy.

Momeni clarified that these measures are based on immigration law and include foreigners who do not have official residency papers, emphasizing that they "do not carry racist motives or xenophobia".

According to official figures, the number of deportees rises to two million out of about six million Afghan refugees residing in Iran.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans continue to flow across the 300-kilometer shared border, amid deteriorating economic and security conditions in Afghanistan that drive them to irregular migration.

Observers believe that the economic crisis plaguing Iran, along with unemployment and inflation pressures, are among the main drivers behind Tehran's tightening policies towards Afghan refugees, raising increasing humanitarian concerns about the conditions of these deportees.