Image Credit: MUHAMMAD BALABULUKI / Contributor / Getty 
According to reports from human rights groups, Iran is using the post-war chaos in the country to deport the Afghan minority. Afghans have long been persecuted in Iran, and the government feels now is the time to move them across the border.
Tehran announced that Afghans have until Sunday to leave voluntarily or face arrest and be deported forcefully back to their home country. Estimates say a million have been deported so far in 2025, with more than half a million crossing to Afghanistan since June. Sources say 70% of the people leaving were forcibly removed, while one in every four individuals crossing the border was a child.
These figures make it one of the biggest mass deportations in Iran’s history, and the end is still nowhere near. About 4 million Afghan immigrants live in the country, some of them since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, establishing strict religious rules and deteriorating quality of life.
Worries are that deporting children who have never lived in Afghanistan or women to a country where their rights evaporate as soon as they cross the border puts them at huge risk. Under international law, the non-refoulement principle states that individuals must not be returned to their countries if they are at a serious risk of torture, persecution, or grave human rights violations.
Iranian authorities are reportedly arresting individuals for made-up charges, like spying for Israel. The pace of the process and deportations suggest people arrested are not getting due process and fair treatment before deportation.
Reports suggest state-affiliated media have incited violence and promoted hatred against Afghans. Messages included labeling them and other minorities as traitors, and blaming them for the destruction and the war that impacted the country. Dehumanizing slogans were targeting these minorities to vilify them and gain the support of the general population.
The deportation of Afghans raises concerns about the situation it will create in Afghanistan, already one of the most impoverished countries on Earth. Now with millions arriving, a humanitarian crisis is potentially on the horizon, according to human rights watch groups.
It is unclear whether those left-wing liberal groups across Europe and the U.S. who supported Iran and Palestine against their war in Israel are also supporting mass deportations. While they seemed happy with Iran bombing and killing innocent people in Israel, Iran’s politically prosecuting minorities and forcibly deporting them has yet to be faced with outrage from the West..
The fundamentalist state of Iran clearly shows little regard for international law or the human rights so often championed by progressive groups. However, the contradictions in the leftist-liberal narrative are becoming harder to ignore. The very regime some of these groups appear to defend—despite its antisemitic actions—also persecutes gays, ethnic minorities, and other communities that Western liberals claim to protect. It raises the question: are these values truly defended only within Western borders, from behind desks, rather than where they’re most urgently under threat?
