Iranian authorities have deported 4,000 Afghan nationals from the southeastern province of Kerman in the first 15 days of the new Persian calendar year, according to Iranian officials.
Mehdi Bakhshi, the chief prosecutor in Kerman, said the individuals were classified as “unauthorized foreign nationals,” a term regularly used by Iranian authorities to describe undocumented migrants. His comments were reported by Iranian state media during a press briefing.
In the same period, Bakhshi added, police in Kerman reportedly seized one metric ton of various narcotics. He also claimed a 36 percent decrease in armed robberies in the province during the first half of the month.
Earlier this year, Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, spokesperson for Iran’s Law Enforcement Command, said that 1.12 million Afghan nationals were deported from Iran during the Persian year 1402, which ended in March.
According to Montazer al-Mahdi, Iranian security forces conducted 1,190 separate “deportation operations” nationwide last year. He claimed that the crackdown contributed to a 7 percent drop in kidnappings across the country.
The escalation of arrests, detentions, and deportations of Afghan migrants has drawn criticism from international human rights organizations and refugee advocacy groups, which have warned that Iran’s actions may violate international obligations toward asylum seekers and vulnerable populations.
