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Iran: Afghan Refugees and Migrants Face Abuse

Thousands Denied Refugee Rights, Summarily Deported

(Kabul, November 20, 2012) – The government of Iran’s policies toward its Afghan refugees and migrant population violate its legal obligations to protect this vulnerable group from abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Iranian forces deport thousands of Afghans summarily, without allowing them the opportunity to prove they have a right to remain in Iran, or to lodge an asylum application.

The 124-page report, “Unwelcome Guests: Iran’s Violation of Afghan Refugee and Migrant Rights,” documents how Iran’s flawed asylum system results in a detention and deportation process with no due process or opportunity for legal appeal. Iranian officials have in recent years limited legal avenues for Afghans to claim refugee or other immigration status in Iran, even as conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated. These policies pose a serious risk to the rights and security of the almost one million Afghans whom Iran recognizes as refugees, and hundreds of thousands of others who have fled war and insecurity in Afghanistan. The practices also violate Iran’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

“Iran is deporting thousands of Afghans to a country where the danger is both real and serious,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iran has an obligation to hear these people’s refugee claims rather than sweeping them up and tossing them over the border to Afghanistan.”

Human Rights Watch documented violations including physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in deportation camps, forced labor, and forced separation of families. Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned about the Iranian security forces’ abuses against unaccompanied migrant children – who are traveling without parents or other guardians – a sizable portion of Afghan migrant workers and deportees.

Iranian authorities are increasingly pressuring Afghans to leave the country. The Iranian government in June 2012 ended registration for its Comprehensive Regularization Plan (CRP), which had permitted some undocumented Afghans to legalize their status and obtain limited visas.

In November 2012, the Iranian cabinet of ministers issued a regulation allowing the government to expel 1.6 million foreigners “illegally residing in Iran” by the end of 2015. The regulation, approved at the vice presidential level, also instructed the Interior Ministry to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of an additional 200,000 Afghans legally classified as refugees and terminate the refugee status of another 700,000 Afghans.

Iranian officials ordered 300,000 Afghans living in Iran with temporary visas and temporary permission to work under the regularization plan to leave the country after the visas expired on September 6, 2013, with no chance of extension. As of this writing, Iranian officials had not yet implemented their plan to deport these Afghans.

As the Iranian government ratchets up the pressure on Afghans to leave, Afghanistan’s deteriorating economic and security situation increases the dangers for returnees. In the first six months of 2013, Afghanistan’s armed conflict and diminished security boosted the number of displaced people inside the country by 106,000, bringing the total to over 583,000. Attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups are the main factor in a 23 percent increase in civilian casualties in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012. Declining international investment and development aid ahead of the deadline at the end of 2014 for full withdrawal of international combat forces is creating increasing economic insecurity.

Iranian legal restrictions and bureaucratic obstacles effectively deny newly arriving Afghans the opportunity to lodge refugee claims or register for other forms of protection mandated by international law and based on conditions in Afghanistan. Iranian policies deny the opportunity to legally challenge deportation to hundreds of thousands of Afghans in Iran who may face persecution or serious harm upon return to Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch found.

“Iran has shouldered the burden of hosting one of the world’s largest refugee populations for more than three decades, but it needs to meet international standards for their treatment,” Stork said. “Afghanistan may be even more dangerous now than when many of these refugees first fled – now is not the time for Iran to send them home.”

The Iranian government should address the serious flaws in its asylum system that deny Afghans the right to lodge refugee claims, Human Rights Watch said. The now more than 800,000 Afghans recognized as refugees registered in 2003 under the country’s Amayesh system, a registration program designed to identify and track recognized refugees. They are required to renew their refugee registration cards every year or risk deportation to Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch also documented problems in Iran’s treatment of registered Afghan refugees. The Iranian government has instituted a complex and onerous process for Afghans to retain their Amayesh status. The process includes frequent re-registration with relevant government agencies, without official assistance for those with limited literacy who struggle to understand bureaucratic procedures, and onerous fees, which many poor refugees cannot afford.

Afghan deportees from Iran told Human Rights Watch that the smallest technical errors, including mistakes during the registration process, can prompt the Iranian authorities to strip Afghans of their refugee status permanently and deport them summarily. The Iranian government has also decreed large swaths of Iran to be travel and residency “no-go areas” for non-Iranians.

Iranian police and security forces also violate the rights of Afghans and commit serious abuses while deporting them. Some of the Afghans Human Rights Watch interviewed had received legal status as refugees from the Iranian authorities, and many of them had spent many years or even decades in Iran. Yet they reported that the Iranian officials who deported them denied them the time and opportunity to collect their wages and personal belongings, or even, in some cases, to contact their family members.

The Iranian government’s policies toward Afghan migrants create other kinds of abuses and discrimination. Although Iranian authorities have made efforts to educate Afghan children, many undocumented Afghan children face bureaucratic obstacles that prevent their children from attending school, in violation of international law. Iranian law limits Afghans who have permission as refugees to work to a limited number of dangerous and poorly paid manual labor jobs, regardless of their education and skills. Iranian law also denies or severely restricts Afghans’ citizenship and marriage rights. Afghan men who marry Iranian women cannot apply for Iranian citizenship, and the children of such marriages face serious barriers to citizenship.

The Iranian government has also failed to take necessary steps to protect its Afghan population from physical violence linked to rising anti-foreigner sentiment in Iran, or to hold those responsible accountable.

“Iran is failing on many counts to respect the rights of Afghans living in Iran,” Stork said. “Even migrants without refugee status have clear rights to educate their children, to be safe from abuse, and to have the opportunity to seek asylum prior to deportation – none of which the Iranian government is respecting.”

Iran: Protect Afghan Refugees and Migrants