The Forced Deportation of Afghanistan Refugees from Iran Amid Recent Geopolitical Upheavals

Abstract
In recent days, the wave of forced deportations of Afghanistan refugees by the Islamic Republic of Iran has intensified in parallel with escalating regional tensions, particularly the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. This paper, through an analytical-critical approach, demonstrates how securitization in Iran’s domestic policy, influenced by geopolitical upheavals, has led to the repression of vulnerable groups such as Afghanistan migrants. Furthermore, the deportations are assessed based on the principles of international law, including the principle of non-refoulement, human rights, and state responsibility, and it is explained how Iran employs deportation as a tool for reproducing internal security and conveying political messages in the crisis-laden regional environment.

Keywords: refugee crisis, forced deportation, security, geopolitics, international law, Iran, Afghanistan.

• Introduction
The Islamic Republic of Iran has hosted millions of Afghanistan refugees over the past decades. However, in recent years and particularly following the collapse of the Afghanistan government and the return of the Taliban to power, Iran has adopted increasingly restrictive policies toward migrants. In recent weeks, the mass deportation of Afghanistan migrants has once again escalated, raising growing concerns regarding violations of human rights, refugee rights, and Iran’s international obligations.
Concurrently, the Middle East has witnessed heightened tensions between Iran and Israel, as well as confrontations between Iran and the United States. This paper, employing the theoretical framework of securitization, explores the hidden security dimensions of migrant deportations. The securitization theory in security studies explains how states frame certain issues as national security threats in order to legitimize extraordinary measures. Within this framework, migrants, especially undocumented ones, are portrayed as threats, and instruments of repression, control, and deportation are employed as responses to internal and external crises.
Faced with economic pressures caused by sanctions, domestic unrest, and external threats, Iran has intensified the deportation of Afghanistan refugees, portraying them as part of an internal security threat. The Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic has even accused some refugees of sabotage. This approach has turned deportation into a tool for managing internal dynamics and sending political messages to the West and the broader region.

• Geopolitical Tensions
In recent months, Israeli attacks on positions of Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon, the assassination of senior commanders, and strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, as well as Iran’s responses, have created a highly volatile atmosphere in the region. In addition, cyberattacks, U.S. military movements in Iran and the Persian Gulf, and increasing security cooperation between Israel and Arab states have contributed to a strategically insecure environment for Iran.
In this context, Iran has intensified the deportation of migrants to pursue several objectives:

1- Social Control and Internal Cohesion:
By exploiting anti-foreigner discourse, the state aims to divert public attention from broader economic and security issues and reinforce internal unity.
2- Pressure on the Taliban and Regional Balancing:
The mass expulsion of migrants may function as an indirect leverage tool against the Taliban, allowing Iran to extract more regional concessions in international negotiations.
3- Political Messaging to the West and International Institutions:
By destabilizing the condition of migrants, Iran underscores the international community’s failure to address the Afghanistan crisis and shifts the burden of responsibility to others.

• Legal Dimensions of Deportation and Conflict with International Principles
The deportation of individuals, especially in the context of asylum or forced migration, carries significant legal implications and may result in serious consequences if it contradicts internationally accepted norms.
Article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, widely recognized as customary international law, prohibits returning individuals to a country where they face threats to life or risk of torture. Given the human rights situation in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the forced return of migrants constitutes a violation of this principle.
Iran is a state party to the ICCPR, and under Article 13, any deportation must follow legal procedures, including access to legal counsel and the right to appeal. The current deportations are largely arbitrary and bypass these procedural safeguards.
According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, separating children from their families, deporting them without consideration of their best interests, and returning them to insecure areas are all inconsistent with established principles of international law.

• Regional and Humanitarian Consequences of Mass Deportation
- Humanitarian Crisis at the Borders:
International organizations have reported that thousands of deported migrants are stranded in border areas without shelter, food, or basic services.
- Increased Instability in Afghanistan:
The unplanned return of thousands of migrants in the absence of a legitimate government imposes additional pressure on Afghanistan society and economy, exacerbating poverty and fragility.
- Erosion of the International Order:
The continuation of such practices without adequate response from international institutions undermines trust in the global governance system.

• Conclusion
The forced deportation of Afghanistan refugees from Iran cannot be interpreted merely as a domestic migration policy decision. Rather, it must be analyzed as part of a broader, multi-layered strategic response by the Islamic Republic of Iran to a range of political, economic, and geopolitical pressures. At a time when Iran is facing multiple internal crises—such as public discontent, economic instability, and sanctions pressure—Afghanistan refugee have been instrumentalized and incorporated into the country’s political and security calculations.
Within this context, deportation is employed as a mechanism to divert public attention from domestic problems, foster temporary social cohesion through the amplification of an external “other,” and signal resistance to the West. Thus, such a policy stands in serious conflict with fundamental principles of international law, including the principle of non-refoulement, the prohibition of collective expulsion, the right to seek asylum, the principle of human dignity, and the broader obligations under international human rights law.
The implementation of these measures without individual assessment, without access to fair legal procedures, and under conditions where serious threats exist in the country of origin constitutes a grave violation of Iran’s international obligations and poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the international legal order.
Therefore, if the international community seeks to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe at the borders and safeguard the foundational principles of the international legal order, it must adopt a coordinated, effective, and multilateral approach—one that not only addresses the immediate migration crisis but also tackles the root causes of regional instability. This approach must focus not only on the protection of refugee rights but also on reforming international mechanisms to counter the instrumentalization of migrants by states for political purposes. Only through such measures can we prevent moral collapse in the face of humanitarian disasters and preserve and strengthen the legitimacy of the international human rights and refugee protection regimes.

References
1- UNHCR (1951) Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,
2- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966),
3- Human Rights Watch Reports on Forced Deportations, 2024-2025,
4- IOM Afghanistan Border Reports (2025),
5- Barry Buzan et al. (1998). Security: A New Framework for Analysis.