Date: 6 July 2025
Human Rights Defenders Plus (HRD+) expresses its deep concern and profound sorrow as we strongly condemn the expanding, unjustified, and degrading forced deportations of Afghan migrants and refugees by the Islamic Republic of Iran. In recent weeks, thousands of Afghan migrants—including women, children, the elderly, the sick, and young people—have been deported or are at imminent risk of deportation without the minimum legal and humanitarian standards being observed. This unjust process continues while many of these individuals possess valid residence permits, registered asylum cases, or are in clear need of international protection.
These hasty deportations, accompanied by the structural and systematic violation of migrants and refugees human rights, reveal painful aspects of a large-scale humanitarian crisis:
- Widespread and severe depression among young people, especially female students, who are suddenly deprived of their right to education and a brighter future;
- Psychological breakdowns among migrant women, who, due to severed social ties, lost security, and family separation, are placed in extreme vulnerability;
- Increasing deprivation of fundamental rights such as education, healthcare, job security, shelter, and basic human services, which completely disregard their human dignity and lead to deep and lasting social and psychological consequences.
Independent and field reports further reveal numerous cases of:
- Arrest and deportation of migrants without prior notice, often in the middle of the night or during work and rest;
- Separation of family members and severe psychological trauma for children due to these separations;
- Confiscation or loss of migrants’ personal belongings;
- Abandonment in dire conditions at border areas without food, water, medicine, or shelter.
Serious Warning
Many of those deported or at risk of deportation belong to groups facing serious threats of persecution, including: Journalists and media workers, women protesting against the Taliban’s repressive policies, civil and human rights activists, former military personnel and security forces of the previous government, former Afghan government employees.
Under international law, including the well-established principle of Non-refoulement, returning these individuals to a territory where they face a serious threat to their life, freedom, or security is strictly prohibited and constitutes a clear breach of international obligations.
Our Demands
In full solidarity with the affected migrants, we urgently call for the following immediate, effective, and concrete actions:
- Immediate and unconditional halt to forced, unlawful deportations without due legal process;
- Individual and thorough review of the legal status of migrants and asylum seekers, ensuring their right to a fair hearing;
- Accountability of relevant institutions for widespread and repeated human rights violations;
- Material and moral compensation for the damages inflicted, and facilitation of voluntary, informed, and safe return;
- Cooperation of the Iranian government with international institutions to design humane, prudent, and dignity-based policies.
To the International Community
We call on the United Nations, international human rights bodies, governments, free media, and all awakened consciences:
- Not to remain silent in the face of this blatant injustice;
- To be the voice of the voiceless;
- And to use legal, diplomatic, and media capacities to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
Silence in the face of migrants’ suffering is complicity in the continuation of oppression and injustice.
Migration is not a crime. Seeking refuge is not a sign of weakness but a humane response to insecurity.
With respect and hope for justice and the preservation of human dignity,