The scapegoating of Afghan refugees

Since the outbreak of war with Israel, countless people in Iran have been left completely at the mercy of rockets. According to Iran's Ministry of Health, at least 430 people had been killed in Israeli attacks by Sunday. Human rights groups believe the true number of casualties could be twice as high as reported.

Wealthy Iranians in particular have fled Tehran in recent days to regions that are, for the time being, unaffected by the war. However, it is often difficult for minorities, marginalised groups and poorer sections of the population to find places of refuge.

According to UNHCR estimates, around 4.5 million Afghans live in Iran. People have been fleeing from Afghanistan to neighbouring Iran for decades. In Iran, many live illegally and are exploited for cheap labour.

Much of Iran's urban skyline was built by Afghan refugees. Now, many of these workers have been forced to take shelter from the air strikes on construction sites or in factories.

"An even greater evil"

"We came here because we no longer felt safe in Afghanistan. The Taliban's harassment was getting worse every day," says Khatera Ahmadi*, a 50-year-old mother who travelled to Tehran with her family just two months ago. "What are we supposed to do now? Flee again?"

Though many refugees have struggled in Iran, life there is still better than back home under the militant Islamist Taliban. Since the Taliban's return in 2021, gender segregation in Afghanistan, which was already stricter than in Iran, has only intensified, along with arbitrary oppression.

Ahmadi's home in Afghanistan was raided and searched several times by armed Taliban fighters. "I'm a widow, but the soldiers didn't care. They thought ISIS terrorists were hiding at our place," she explains over the phone.

Ahmadi wonders what the goal of Israel and the USA could be. "There is infrastructure, education and culture here," she says about Iran. "Is all of that supposed to be bombed away now?"

To those who are hoping for a transfer of power in Tehran, with American or Israeli support, Ahmadi has a lesson from her own life experience: "I understand that many Iranians despise the mullah regime," she says. But in Afghanistan, regime change from outside has never produced the desired result. "Usually, after the evil came an even greater evil."

Paraded on television

In the eyes of the regime in Tehran, there also seem to be people inside the country responsible for the current evil. Specifically, the question is posed: who is on the payroll of Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service?

A few days ago, Iranian state television paraded several Afghan men who had been arrested on flimsy charges and accused of "terrorism" or "espionage."

According to various reports, which cannot be independently verified, numerous raids also took place in neighbourhoods where Afghan refugees live.

"The regime accuses the Afghans of collaborating with Mossad," says Mohammad Halim*, who left Afghanistan about two years ago to settle in Tehran. After the Israeli attacks, he fled to the north of the country with Iranian friends.

"It's being said that Afghan spies provided coordinates," Halim explains via video call, which is still possible thanks to a Starlink connection. Unlike other communication lines in the country, satellite internet is still working.

"Now they’re carrying out collective punishments again. As an Afghan, you have to be even more careful than before."

Anti-Afghan racism in Iran has long been widespread, both socially and institutionally. People from Afghanistan are officially banned from settling. In recent years, public parks where Afghans are denied entry have also gained attention.

Mossad inside Iran

In Iran, Afghan refugees are held in numerous detention camps and have been deported en masse for years. At the Iranian–Afghan border, they are often subjected to serious human rights abuses by regime soldiers.

Still, Halim considers it realistic that some Afghans in Iran have worked against the regime. Like many Iranians, he is convinced that Mossad must have been active in Iran long before the recent attacks.

"How else could such attacks have happened? Of course they're here," says Halim. He's heard that some poor Afghans have also been hired for menial tasks. "But it's mainly Iranians who collaborate with the Israelis."

That assumption cannot be confirmed, but many Afghan refugees believe it's likely. Most Afghan refugees live in poverty and rely on money for themselves and their families, who mostly remain in Afghanistan. In such circumstances, accepting money from dubious sources is understandable and even human.

Until recently, the Iranian regime itself lured refugees with money. During the war in Syria, thousands of Afghan refugees, including minors, were recruited into the so-called Fatemiyoun Brigade to defend Assad's regime, which was allied with Tehran before it fell. Typically, these young men and their families were promised Iranian residence papers and access to education. But many never returned.

*Names have been changed for safety reasons.

This is an edited translation of the German original.