TEHRAN –In an unprecedented move, a total of 33,000 undocumented Afghan refugees were sent back from Iran to their home country on Wednesday.

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban’s director of information and culture in Herat, has posted the same figures on X, noting that additional buses carrying Afghan migrants were still en route from Iran.

According to Amu TV, the scale of the deportation is highly unusual and comes ahead of a July 5 deadline issued by Iranian authorities, who have ordered undocumented Afghan migrants to leave the country voluntarily or face arrest and forced expulsion.

Iran’s national police command has previously warned that those who remain past the deadline would be subject to detention and deportation.
Formerly, the country sent back three thousand Afghan refugees on a daily basis.

Which Afghan nationals are allowed to stay in Iran?

Afghan nationals who are university students, vulnerable women heads of households, children with an Iranian parent, and those who have a job code are allowed to live in the country.

Students whose parents do not have legal permission to reside in the country have to return to Afghanistan by July 6. However, the case is different for university students. Having passports, they can extend their stay in the country, IRNA quoted Nader Yar-Ahmadi, the head of the National Organization for Migration, as saying.

Women heads of households whose life is confirmed to be threatened by their return will be able to stay temporarily in the country and benefit from treatment services.

According to the law, being born in Iran does not grant Iranian citizenship. If the child’s father is Iranian and the parents’ marriage is legally registered, the child will be considered Iranian and will have an identification (ID) card.

In cases where the mother is Iranian and the father is a foreign national, even if the marriage is not registered, the child will receive an ID card with the mother’s last name.

If undocumented nationals who have worked under a job code leave the country voluntarily, they can receive a visa to get back to their work, in case their employers agree. However, if they are arrested and deported, they will be banned from applying for a visa.

MT/MG