Iran continues mass expulsions of Afghan refugees

international | racism & migration related issues | other press

Monday July 16, 2007 18:32

by Mirza Kuchak Khan - Communist Party of Iran (MLM),

Some socialists would claim that Iran is goverened by a radical anti-Imperialist regime. However the way Iran treats asylum seekers shows that the Iranian government is just as racist as the US when it comes to immigration. The article below was written by a member of the Communist Party of Iran (MLM).

A campaign to kick out Afghan refugees in Iran is continuing unabated. Between late April and late June, the Islamic Republic of Iran rounded up more than 100,000 Afghans working in Iran and dumped them on the other side of the border.

Expulsions of refugees from Afghanistan have been going on with varying degrees of intensity for the last two decades. They have been an integral part of Tehran’s policy of maintaining permanent pressure on Afghan refugees and workers resident in Iran. In 2006, Iran threw out around 146,000 Afghan refugees and workers.

When Iran launched its campaign, its security forces raided the workplaces and homes of Afghan immigrants and beat and insulted them as “Afghan trash”. Police took many of them away without informing their family or giving them time to collect their wages or savings. Many were not even allowed to pack their few simple belongings. Then those arrested were herded into courtyards and filthy, crowded detention centres, where they were kept for days before finally being driven to the border and dumped on the other side. After working for decades in Iran, many ended up with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing.