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    M    i     d     d     l   e    E   a   s    t   e   r   n     O   u    t     l   o   o     k

1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 202 .862.5800 www.aei.org

Following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghani-

stan, millions of Afghans poured into neighboring

countries. While Pakistan hosted the greatest

number of refugees, Iran had taken in about

3 million Afghans by 1990.1 Many Afghans

returned to Afghanistan following the end of 

communist rule, but a second wave of refugees

fled the country with the outbreak of civil war

after the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of 

Soviet-backed president Mohammad Najibullah’s

government in 1992. More than 5 million

Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan after

the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, but many Afghans

still live abroad.2 According to the Iran Statistical

Center, Afghans constitute the largest group of 

legal foreign residents in Iran. By November1996, they numbered eight hundred thousand,

a sum that increased 50 percent over the next

decade. With migrant workers and illegal

immigrants, however, the number of Afghans

living in Iran today may reach 2.5 million.3

Background

Iran and Pakistan treated their Afghan refugees

differently. While Pakistan kept Afghans in

refugee camps, Iran allowed them to live across

the country and took formal responsibility for

them in the 1980s and 1990s, giving only a

Iranian Influence in Afghanistan:

Refugees as Political Instruments

By Ahmad Majidyar and Ali Alfoneh

This is the second in a series of Middle Eastern Outlooks documenting Iran’s growing influence in Afghanistan.

 As the United States and its allies target the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran is using the forced return of Afghan

refugees to leverage its influence in Afghanistan at the expense of U.S. interests. Waves of refugees cause humani-

tarian crises and are used to shield the movement of foreign terrorists into Afghanistan. This Outlook examines

how the Iranian government systematically uses forced repatriation of Afghans living in Iran both to undermine

U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and to extract concessions from the Afghan government.

Ahmad Majidyar (ahmad.majidyar@aei.org) is a seniorresearch associate at AEI. Ali Alfoneh (ali.alfoneh@aei.org)is a resident fellow at AEI.

No. 5 • November 2010

Key points in this Outlook :

• Iranian influence in Afghanistan is

not benign; the forced repatriation

of Afghans living in Iran destabilizes

western Afghanistan.

• By threatening to flood Afghanistanwith waves of refugees, the Iranian

government forces the Afghan govern-

ment to comply with its demands.

• U.S. aid to Afghanistan must take into

account the millions of refugees living

outside the country.

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limited role to the United Nations refugee agency

and other international humanitarian organizations.

Although Iran is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee

Convention, it did not grant the Afghans fleeing the

Soviet occupation refugee status ( panahandeh) and

instead classified them as “involuntary religious

migrants” (mohajerin). Indeed, the term mohajerin was

more dignified than panahandeh in postrevolutionary

Iran,4 and Iranian leaders often described helping

Afghan refugees as the country’s Islamic and humani-

tarian duty.

Iran’s Interior Ministry officially coordinates respon-

sibility for refugees, usually under the Secretariat of 

the Coordination Council of Alien Affairs, which the

interior minister chairs. The secretariat brings together

the ministers of education, intelligence, foreign affairs,

labor, and health, along with the Administration and

Planning Organization director, the Supreme National

Security Council secretary, the Law Enforcement

Forces chief, and the head of the Red Crescent of Iran.5

Generally, the interior and intelligence ministries treat

alien residents first and foremost as a security issue. The

Revolutionary Guards and the Law Enforcement Forces

provide muscle to any regulation or policy. The Supreme

 National Security Council is also involved in domestic

refugee policy as an instrument of foreign policy. While

the Interior Ministry’s Bureau for Alien and Foreign

Immigrant Affairs supervises visas and residency permits,

it coordinates closely with the Revolutionary Guards

and the local branch of the Revolutionary Tribunal

on a provincial level.6

With the fall of the Taliban’s regime and the inaugu-

ration of a Western-backed government in Afghanistan,

the Iranian government took a tough line with the

Afghan refugees. “It is now time for them to return,”said Ahmad Hosseini, the senior Interior Ministry

official dealing in refugee affairs, in March 2002.

“Registered Afghan nationals will be gradually repatri-

ated in a two-year program.” Unregistered Afghans

were given six months to leave Iran.7 In April 2002,

Iran signed a trilateral agreement with Afghanistan and

the UN’s High Commission for Refugees to facilitate

repatriation of Afghans.8 By April 2004, 730,000

Afghans had returned to Afghanistan.9

With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ascent to power

in August 2005, the Iranian government stepped up

forcible repatriation of Afghans. On March 12, 2006,

Hosseini announced that 350,000 Afghans had been

forcibly repatriated in 2005 and warned that the Iranian

government would apply “new measures” against

Afghans who resisted.10 Forced evictions continued

over subsequent years, and, in January 2008, Taghi

Ghaemi, Hosseini’s replacement at the Interior Ministry,

threatened the 1.5 million “illegal Afghans” in Iran with

“five years of imprisonment” or “internment in camps”

if they refused repatriation.11

The Ahmadinejad government also imposed stringent

restrictions on Afghans inside Iran. Since May 2007,

Afghans have been banned from living in certain Iranian

provinces and cities, such as border towns in the east.12

They were banned from the southwestern Kohgiluyeh va

Boyerahmad province in July 2007 and the Caspian lit-

toral Gilan province in May 2008.13 The list has contin-

ued to grow through this year such that, at present,

Afghan citizens are entirely prohibited from living in

thirteen provinces, with many cities in other provinces

also off limits.14 The government has also imposed

education and employment restrictions on Afghans.15

Iranian leaders often justify their actions by citing

problems Afghan refugees cause in Iran: unemployment,

drug trade, and related criminal activity in the Iranian

border provinces. Afghan officials, however, allege that

Iran is using the refugees as a destabilizing political tool

against Afghanistan.

Refugees as a Political Tool

The Ahmadinejad government successfully uses the

refugee issue to increase its leverage over Hamid Karzai’s

government in Afghanistan. Whenever Afghanistan’s

policies displease Tehran, the Iranian government

threatens to expel all Afghans living in Iran. Tehran

understands that the fragile Afghan government lacks

the capacity to absorb a large number of returnees undercurrent security and economic conditions. At times, it

has dumped thousands of Afghans into lawless areas in

western Afghanistan without advance coordination

with either Afghan authorities or international organiza-

tions. Such mass deportations trigger humanitarian

crises, undermine security in southern and western

Afghanistan, and cause political turmoil in Kabul.

In 2007, for example, the Afghan parliament

impeached Karzai’s ministers for refugees and foreign

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The number of Afghans living in Iran today

may reach 2.5 million.

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affairs after Iran forcibly repatriated over eighty thousand

Afghans. The impeachments, directed by Iranian sup-

porters within the parliament, sparked a constitutional

crisis in Kabul, as Karzai rejected the parliament’s dis-

missal of Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta. Spanta

said that Iran moved forward with the expulsions to

protest Afghanistan’s acquiescence to a formal NATO

military presence in Afghanistan, to compel Afghanistan

to support Iran’s nuclear program, and to ensure Iran’s

access to Helmand River waters flowing into Iran.16

Only after Karzai made a personal appeal to Ahmadine-

jad did Tehran halt the deportations.17 It is unclear what

concessions Kabul offered Tehran.

Deportations soon resumed, however. In December

2008, under pressure from parliament, Karzai sent a

delegation led by Vice President Karim Khalili to nego-

tiate a settlement over the refugee issue. Iranian leaders

exploited the situation to launch verbal attacks against

the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Iranian

parliament speaker Ali Larijani told the visiting Afghan

delegation, “After seven years, the presence of foreign

forces in Afghanistan has not only failed to bring

security and stability, but has undermined security

and increased extremism.”18 Tehran eventually agreed

to suspend expulsions, but only until spring.

Mass deportations have also undermined security in

southern and western Afghanistan. Nimruz governor

Ghulam Dastagir Azad has complained that Iran expels

hundreds of Afghans daily to Nimruz,19 and provincial

officials acknowledge that they cannot cope with the

influx of returnees. Neither the U.S. Army nor its NATO

allies operate a Provincial Reconstruction Team in

 Nimruz, and the province has seen little economicdevelopment in recent years. On May 10, 2010, Amrullah

Sultani, top official for Afghan refugees and returnees in

 Nimruz, said the Iranian government had expelled over

sixty thousand Afghan refugees to the province over two

months without coordinating with the provincial

officials.20 Iran also deports thousands of refugees to the

Herat province each month.21 In March and April 2010

alone, Iran deported some thirty thousand Afghans to

Herat through the Islam Qala border crossing.22 In other

words, Iran systematically uses forcible repatriation

of Afghan refugees and migrant workers to spark a

humanitarian and security crisis in the western parts

of Afghanistan. In doing so, the Islamic Republic is

telling Kabul that the key to western Afghanistan’s

security is in Tehran, not in Washington, D.C. This

shows that Iran is positioning itself to have a presence

in the region long after U.S. forces leave.

Iran has also used mass deportations to facilitate

infiltration of foreign terrorists into western Afghanistan.

Afghan border guards in Islam Qala, the main border

crossing between Iran and Herat, say there are no pro-

cedures to monitor returnees and check their nationality:

“We have caught Arab and Iranian citizens trying to

enter Afghanistan without the proper documentation,

and have turned them over to the National Directorate

of Security. But we cannot check everybody so carefully.

We do not have enough officers, or the right equip-

ment,” said Abdullah Achakzai, a border police officer,

adding that the border police had captured an Iranian

citizen pretending to be an Afghan refugee. “He had

maps with him of Herat airport and other documents

concerning the 207th Zafar [Afghan National Army]

corps.”23 Herat’s police chief Ismatullah Alizai said last

year that over fifty foreigners—among them Iranians,

Pakistanis, and Chechens—had been identified in the

Gozara and Pashtun Zarghon districts of Herat. “Two

Iranian citizens were arrested during a police operation

against anti-government militants in Gozara district,”

he pointed out. “We turned them over to the National

Directorate of Security for further investigation.”24

The number of foreign terrorists intercepted by the

Afghan border-security forces while trying to infiltrate

Afghanistan from the Iranian border may be only the

tip of the iceberg, which suggests Islamic Republic

involvement in a more systematic effort.

There are indeed some indications of this organized

effort. Last September, the independent daily Afghanpaper

reported that eighteen Iranian Kurds, including four

women, had entered the Seyoshaan village near Herat totrain in suicide bombing. The would-be suicide bombers,

according to the paper, were in the residence of Bashir

Ahmad Qena’at, the son-in-law of Ghulam Yahya

Akbari, a local commander aligned with the Taliban

and with alleged links to Iran, whom a U.S. airstrike in

early 2009 reportedly killed.25 Two weeks later, Afghan

police also claimed they had discovered a training base

of suicide bombers in Seyoshaan village run by Iranians,

Pakistanis, and a few Arabs.26

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The Islamic Republic is telling Kabul that

the key to western Afghanistan’s security

is in Tehran, not in Washington, D.C.

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It is not only through forced repatriation of Afghan

refugees and migrant workers that the Islamic Republic

destabilizes western Afghanistan. Sometimes, Tehran

reverses the game. In October 2009, Iran temporarily

opened its border to allow several hundred Afghans to

enter Iran through Herat’s Dogharoon border point

without visas or passports. As soon as it was rumored

that Iran had loosened its border control, thousands of 

Afghans from all over western Afghanistan stormed

Herat only to find the border closed. The frustrated

Afghans directed their anger not at Iran, but at Afghan

authorities, whom they blamed for trying to deny them

access to Iran.27

Conclusion

With the security situation in Afghanistan at its nadir

since the fall of the Taliban and economic-development

and job-creation efforts faltering, Iranian leaders cor-

rectly calculate that a fragile Afghanistan cannot

absorb the over 2 million Afghans living in Iran.

Iranian mistreatment and forced repatriation of Afghan

refugees and migrant workers further undermines the

credibility of the Kabul government and increases

Kabul’s dependence on the regime in Tehran. Unless

the international community devises a comprehensive

development strategy for Afghanistan—such as provid-

ing housing, social services, schools, and help with

reintegration into Afghan society—that takes into

account the hundreds of thousands of Afghan returnees,

Tehran will continue to play the refugee card to pressure

Kabul and harm U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

Notes

1. David Turton and Peter Marsden, Taking Refugees for

a Ride? The Politics of Refugee Return to Afghanistan(Kabul:

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, December 2002), 1.

2. UN Refugee Agency, “2010 UNHCR Country Operations

Profile—Afghanistan,” available at www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/

texis/vtx/page?page=49e486eb6 (accessed October 6,

2010).

3. “Amar-e Eshteghal-e Atba’e Afghan Dar Iran” [Employ-

ment Statistics of Afghan Citizens in Iran], Alef News Agency,

December 19, 2009, available in Persian at http://alef.ir/1388/

content/view/59767 (accessed October 14, 2010).

4. Rhoda Margesson, Afghan Refugees: Current Status and

Future Prospects (Washington, DC: Congressional Research

Service, 2007), available at www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33851.pdf 

(accessed October 6, 2010).

5. Ibid.

6. “Ghanoun Raje’ Be Ta’in-e Vazaef Va Tashkilat-e Showra-ye

Amniat-e Keshvar” [The Law on Division of Duties of the

 National Security Council], Hafezeh-ye Ghavanin, available in

Persian at http://tarh.majlis.ir/?ShowRule&Rid=62A58DD9-

F44B-483E-A50E-E71F3FBB649F (accessed October 14, 2010).

7. “Iran Says Time for Afghan Refugees to Go Home,”

Reuters, March 6, 2002.

8. “Violence Halts Afghan Refugee Flow,” BBC, April 9, 2002.

9. “730,000 Mohajer-e Afghan Az Iran Be Keshvar Bazgash-

tand” [730,000 Afghan Refugees Leave Iran for Afghanistan],

Vezarat-e Keshvar, May 23, 2007, available in Persian at

http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/ShowPage.aspx?Object=News&I

D=911cc5cc-4f21-457e-8798-764425fb3cf0&WebPartID=

1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-5108afc82bc&CategoryID=a25b3683-

80cc-48ec-810c-29ca2ea14479 (accessed October 14, 2010).

10. “Emsal 350000 Taba’eh-ye Afghani-ye Gheir-e-Mojaz-e

Saken Dar Iran Be Keshvareshan Bazgardandeh Shodand” [This

Year 350,000 Illegal Afghan Citizens in Iran Were Repatriated],

Vezarat-e Keshvar, May 23, 2007, available in Persian at

http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/ShowPage.aspx?Object=

 News&ID=df6e808d-a187-48c6-82dd-30438bcc896f&Web

PartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-d5108afc82bc&CategoryID=

a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-29ca2ea14479 (accessed October 14,

2010); and “Siasatha-ye Jadid-e Iran Dar Mored-e Mohajeran-e

Afghan” [Iran’s New Policies towards Afghan Refugees],

BBC Persian, February 19, 2006, available in Persian at

www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/02/060219_mv-

afghans-iran.shtml (accessed October 14, 2010).

11. “Iran Yek Va Nim Million Mohajer-e Afghan Ra Be

Zendan Tahdid Kard” [Iran Threatened One and a Half Million

Afghan Refugees with Imprisonment], BBC Persian, January 2,2008, available in Persian at www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/

story/2008/01/080102_s-iran-afghan-refugees.shtml (accessed

October 14, 2010).

12. “Shahr-ha-ye Marzi-ye Shargh-e Keshvar Baraye

Sokounat-e Atba’e Biganeh Mamnoue’ E’lam Shod” [Residence

of Foreign Nationals Declared Prohibited in Border Towns in

Eastern Parts of the Country], Vezarat-e Keshvar, May 23,

2007, available in Persian at http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/

ShowPage.aspx?Object=News&ID=7d0a279d-137e-47e2-

- 4 -

Whenever Afghanistan’s policies displease

Tehran, the Iranian government threatens to

expel all Afghans living in Iran.

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9aeb-77841df24f4c&WebPartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-

d5108afc82bc&CategoryID=a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-

29ca2ea14479 (accessed October 14, 2010).

13. “Mamnou’iat-e Eghamat-e Avaregan-e Afghan Dar

Ostan-e Kohgilouyeh Va Boyer-Ahmad” [Ban against Residence

of Afghan Refugees in Kohgiluyeh Va Boyerahmad Province],

Vezarat-e Keshvar, July 23, 2007, available at http://bafia.moi.ir/

Portal/Home/ShowPage.aspx?Object=News&ID=2e1cc615-3f63-

4707-944e-df50c7c6b039&WebPartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-

b951-d5108afc82bc&CategoryID=a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-29c

a2ea14479 (accessed October 14, 2010); and “Tarradod Va

Sokounat-e Atba’e Afghani Dar Gilan Az Avval-e Tirmah

Mamnou’e Ast” [Prohibition against Afghan Citizens Residing

or Trespassing Gilan from July], Vezarat-e Keshvar, May 17, 2008,

available in Persian at http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/ShowPage

.aspx?Object=News&ID=9e50aecd-a683-4949-b924-1f6941f9c

4a6&WebPartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-d5108afc82bc&

CategoryID=a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-29ca2ea14479 (accessed

October 14, 2010).

14. “Eghamat-e Afghan-ha Dar Khonj-e Fars Mamnou’e E’lam

Shod” [Residence of Afghans Declared Illegal in Khonj in Fars

Province], Vezarat-e Keshvar, November 15, 2008, available in

Persian at http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/ShowPage.aspx?

Object=News&ID=64eb968f-4d2c-4337-a93e-65fa897d18f2&

WebPartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-d5108afc82bc&

CategoryID=a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-29ca2ea14479 (accessed

October 14, 2010); “Eghamat Va Tarradod-e Atba’e Afghan

Dar 23 Shahr-e Golestan Mamnou’e Shod” [Residence and

Trespassing of Afghan Citizens Prohibited in 23 Cities of 

Golestan Province], Vezarat-e Keshvar, January 16, 2010, avail-

able in Persian at http://bafia.moi.ir/Portal/Home/ShowPage.aspx?

Object=News&ID=3bbdf712-e760-4f6f-ad7e-06a46d42d50d

&WebPartID=1ccb27ea-dce7-45b5-b951-d5108afc82bc&

CategoryID=a25b3683-80cc-48ec-810c-29ca2ea14479 (accessed

October 14, 2010); “Tarh-e Jame’-e Samandehi-ye Afghan-ha-ye

Gheir-e-Mojaz Aghaz Shod” [The Expansive Improvement

Scheme of Illegal Afghan Citizens Begins], Iranian Students

 News Agency, July 24, 2010, available in Persian at http://isna.ir/

ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1579944&Lang=P (accessed

October 14, 2010); and “Manategh-e Mamnoueh-ye Iran Bara-yeEghamat-e Atba’e Khareji” [Prohibited Areas in Iran for Foreign

 Nationals], E’temad, October 20, 2008, available in Persian

at www.magiran.com/npview.asp?ID=1725170 (accessed

October 14, 2010).

15. “Manategh-e Mamnoueh-ye Eghamat Va Tahsil Bara-ye

Atba’e-e Khareji” [Prohibited Areas for Education and Residence

of Foreign Nationals], Sazeman-e Bakhsh-e Amouzesh-e Keshvar,

April 24, 2010, available in Persian at http://noet.ir/noet/

FullStory.aspx?gid=6&id=161 (accessed October 14, 2010).

16. Amin Tarzi, “Iran: Poker-Faced amid Allegations of 

Interference in Afghanistan,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,

 June 12, 2007.

17. Brian Bennet: “Iran Raises the Heat in Afghanistan,”

Time, February 22, 2008, available at www.time.com/time/world/

article/0,8599,1716579,00.html (accessed October 14, 2010).

18. “Larijani: Hozour-e Khareji Amel-e Roshd-e Efratgarayi

Dar Afghanestan Ast” [Larijani: Foreign Presence Is the Reason

behind Extremism in Afghanistan], BBC Persian, December 22,

2008, available in Persian at www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/

2008/12/081222_he-kalili_larijani.shtml (accessed Septem-

ber 1, 2010).

19. “Afghan Refugees Complain about Harassment by

Pakistan, Iranian Police,” Tolo TV, April 23, 2009.

20. “Afghan Official Accuses Iran of Expelling 60,000 Afghan

Refugees,” Afghan Islamic Press, May 10, 2010; and “Iran Deports

Over 50,000 Afghan Refugees,” Arzu TV, May 10, 2010.

21. “Afghan Refugees Complain about Harassment by

Pakistan, Iranian Police.”

22. “Iran Bish Az Hashtad Hezar Panahjou-ye Afghan Ra

Ekhraj Kard” [Iran Repatriates More Than Eighty Thousand

Afghan Refugees], 8 Sobh, April 28, 2010, available in Persian at

www.8am.af/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=

11616:1389-02-21-18-08-55&catid=42:2008-10-31-09-36-

17&Itemid=469 (accessed September 1, 2010).

23. Zia Ahmadi and Mustafa Saber, “Afghans Fear Infiltra-

tion from Iran,” Asia Times, November 13, 2009, available at

www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK13Df03.html (accessed

September 1, 2010).

24. Zia Ahmadi and Mustafa Saber, “Afghans Fear Insurgent

Infiltration across Iran Border,” Institute for War and Peace

Reporting, November 11, 2009.

25. “18 Kord-e Irani Bara-ye Amouzesh-e Hamelat-e Entehari

Vared-e Herat Shodeh-and” [Eighteen Iranian Kurds Have

Entered Herat for Suicide Training], Afghanpaper, September 27,

2009, available at http://afghanpaper.com/nbody.php?id=3770

(accesed September 1, 2010).

26. “18 Kord-e Irani Bara-ye Amouzesh-e Hamelat-e EntehariVared-e Herat Shodeh-and” [Eighteen Iranian Kurds Have

Entered Herat for Suicide Training].

27. “Khabar-e Fori: Bedoun-e Viza Be Iran Beravid?!”

[Immediate Release: Travel to Iran without Visa?!] Afghan-

 paper, October 4, 2009, available in Persian at http://afghan

paper.com/nbody.php?id=3949&reason=0 (accessed Octo-

ber 20, 2010).

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