Amid growing tensions over the presence of millions of Afghans in Iran, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has banned Afghans from residing in nearly half of the country’s provinces.
Hamzeh Soleimani, director general for foreign nationals and immigrants’ affairs for the Kermanshah governor’s office, announced the ban on Saturday via the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA). He stated that Kermanshah Province is included in the ban.
Since March, authorities in Kermanshah Province have conducted nine sweeps of construction sites, greenhouses, horse stables, and cattle farms—places where Afghans are commonly employed—to identify, detain, and expel “illegal foreign nationals,” Soleimani said.
This ban, which follows protests and unrest in Meybod in eastern Yazd Province and demands for the expulsion of Afghans, appears to apply to all Afghan citizens in 16 provinces, regardless of their immigration status.
Afghans, often referred to simply as “foreign nationals” by officials and the media, constitute the majority of immigrants in Iran. During the sweeps in Kermanshah Province, a significant number of Afghan workers and some employers who hired them were arrested. Soleimani urged people to report the employment of Afghan citizens in farms and construction sites to the authorities.
Iranian media report that the ban includes the northwestern and western provinces of East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Hamedan, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Ilam, and Lorestan, as well as the northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran. The southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, a major entry point for Afghan immigrants to Iran, and the southern Hormozgan province have also been designated as restricted zones for Afghans.
Only 780,000 Afghans in Iran have official refugee status, leaving the majority undocumented. In October, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated that identity papers had been issued for more than one million Afghans, with plans to include more. He had previously estimated that the country was home to about five million Afghans. However, another government official, Mohsen Najafikhah, told parliament in October that the number of “foreign nationals” in Iran exceeds eight million, or ten percent of the country’s population. Some estimates suggest the Afghan population may have reached ten million since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
The rapid increase in the Afghan population in Iran over the past two years has sparked controversy, with some media and politicians alleging that authorities are actively encouraging this growth, warning of a “threat to national security.” Anti-Afghan sentiments have surged, with ultra-nationalists campaigning on social media for the expulsion of all Afghans on racial grounds.
On Friday, an angry mob in Meybod torched the homes of Afghan citizens in the Afghan quarter known as Afghanabad. Police and security forces had to barricade the area to prevent further violence. Videos posted on social media showed Afghans fleeing the city in large groups towards the surrounding desert. Nearly one in eight of Meybod’s 90,000 residents are reportedly Afghans.
The incident followed the reported death of an Iranian teenager and the injury of another in a street altercation with Afghans. In response, locals took to the streets, expressing their grievances during Friday prayers and calling for the arrest of the culprits and the expulsion of all Afghans from the city. Social media accounts indicate that the city’s appointed Friday imam, a Revolutionary Guard commander, and the city’s governor, who attempted to pacify the demonstrators, were specifically targeted and assaulted.
