Preventing a Humanitarian Breakdown for Afghan Refugees in Iran Amid Economic Collapse and Rising Deportations

Displaced International (DI) is deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran—driven by deepening economic crisis, currency collapse, and political unrest—and by the disproportionate harm this is inflicting on vulnerable communities. The most exposed are the more than four million Afghans who have long lived in Iran as refugees, asylum seekers, and people in refugee-like situations, including many with precarious or no documentation.

“Afghan families in Iran are being pushed beyond survival—losing livelihoods, cutting meals, and delaying essential care—at the very moment they need protection most,” said Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, DI Founder and President. “Their needs are basic: food aid, access to education and health care, and the ability to earn a lawful livelihood. Policymakers and donors must act now with scaled-up humanitarian assistance and protection support inside Iran and at border points, so these families are not abandoned to hunger, detention, or coerced return.”

Iran has, for more than four decades, hosted one of the world’s largest Afghan refugee populations and remains a critical host country even as ordinary Iranians face profound hardship amid a sanctions-strained economy and widening social pressures, including the current currency crash and inflation shock.

A complex protection caseload, with risk shaped by documentation and access

Afghans in Iran are not a single, uniform population; they are a multi-tiered protection caseload shaped by documentation status, residence rules, and access to services. UNHCR reports that Iran hosts roughly 773,000 registered refugees with Amayesh/Hoviat cards—most of them Afghans. Alongside them are several million people in refugee-like situations who are undocumented or have precarious documentation, as reflected in humanitarian analysis on Iran. In practice, irregular or precarious status often determines whether a family can work lawfully, access basic services, rent housing without exploitation, or seek protection without fear of arrest—making documentation safeguards and protection monitoring central to any workable policy response.

Livelihood collapse is driving humanitarian need and protection risks

Iran’s economic downturn and high inflation have sharply eroded Afghan livelihoods, especially for those concentrated in informal and low-wage work with minimal protections. As prices rise and jobs contract, households slide into hunger and debt and resort to harmful coping mechanisms, including child labor, skipping rent, and delaying medical care. Longstanding limits on mobility, residence, and access to services further constrain families’ ability to move to where work exists or stabilize their status—turning economic shock into a protection crisis affecting both refugees and vulnerable host communities.

Post-conflict scapegoating is tightening enforcement pressure

Discrimination and xenophobia have intensified, and Afghan communities have reported increased targeting by law enforcement. Following the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, Afghans describe heightened suspicion, raids, arbitrary arrests, and detention—often accompanied by accusations of collaboration without credible evidence. This dynamic accelerates irregularity, drives families into hiding, and undermines social cohesion when stability is already under strain.

Mass deportations and coercive returns are accelerating harm

DI is alarmed by deportation campaigns that have accelerated returns at a scale Afghanistan cannot absorb. IOM documented a record 256,000 returns in a short period and reported that, between 1 January and 29 June 2025 alone, more than 700,000 Afghans returned from Iran, with many returns occurring under pressure. UNHCR later indicated that more than 1.5 million Afghans had returned from Iran in 2025 by early August.

We are deeply concerned by reports of family separation, ill-treatment in detention, loss of belongings, and removals justified by generalized and unfounded security accusations, amid post-conflict narratives that have legitimized intensified deportations. When Afghans become convenient scapegoats for wider economic and political failures, the risk of collective punishment rises—and preventable suffering becomes policy-driven, not inevitable.

Afghanistan under Taliban rule: returns are unsafe and risk refoulement

Afghans cannot safely return to Afghanistan under current conditions. Since August 2021, Taliban rule has entrenched systematic discrimination—most visibly through sweeping restrictions on women and girls that the UN has described as intensifying, while Human Rights Watch notes Afghanistan remains the only country where women and girls are barred from secondary and university education. But the risks extend well beyond gender persecution.

Many returnees face targeted harm on account of political opinion or perceived affiliation with the former government and international forces, and are also vulnerable due to ethnicity and sect, including threats, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment. The UN has specifically documented serious abuses against forcibly returned Afghans based on their profiles—especially those perceived to have links to the former authorities—highlighting the grave protection risks of return in today’s Afghanistan, as summarized by OHCHR in its reporting on human rights violations against forced returnees.

Calls to action for policymakers, donors, and humanitarian leaders

DI urges governments, UN agencies, international NGOs, and donors to treat protection for Afghans in Iran as an urgent, time-bound policy priority requiring emergency financing, expanded protection capacity, and clear diplomatic engagement.

• Scale up life-saving assistance inside Iran now, prioritizing food support, health care, winterization, cash assistance where feasible, and livelihoods stabilization for refugees and vulnerable host communities—especially households dependent on informal work.

• Expand protection monitoring and legal aid, including access to information, case management, referrals, and safeguards for Afghans facing arrest, detention, or deportation, with particular attention to women-headed households, children, and those at heightened risk of trafficking or family separation.

• Strengthen border and receiving-area support in Afghanistan in line with UNHCR’s returns emergency response, ensuring immediate shelter, food, health services, protection screening, safe transportation, and livelihoods assistance that reduces repeated displacement.

• Close urgent funding gaps across Afghanistan and Iran response plans, recognizing that underfunding is now a direct driver of preventable harm and onward movement.

• Expand resettlement and other safe pathways for the most at-risk Afghans—especially women’s rights activists, journalists, human rights defenders, minorities, former security personnel, and unaccompanied or separated children—so protection does not depend on dangerous journeys or ad hoc decisions.

• Engage Iran at high level with concrete safeguards, urging an immediate halt to forcible deportations; ensuring any returns are voluntary, safe, and dignified; ending scapegoating and preventing hate speech and incitement; restoring and extending documentation schemes to reduce irregularity and enable access to basic services and lawful work where possible; and facilitating humanitarian access for UN agencies and NGOs.

• Share responsibility with Iran through predictable support, pairing protection diplomacy with sustained humanitarian financing so Iran is not left to shoulder this burden alone—at the expense of refugees, host communities, and regional stability.

Displaced International stands in solidarity with Afghan refugees and people in refugee-like situations in Iran, and with ordinary Iranians affected by this crisis. The moment demands urgent, coordinated policy action rooted in humanity, non-discrimination, and the rule of law.