ACAA warns Iran conflict is putting Afghan refugees at grave risk

Credit; ACAA

The Afghanistan & Central Asian Association (ACAA), an award-winning UK-based refugee charity headquartered in London and the largest charity supporting Afghan and Central Asian communities in the United Kingdom, has warned that the ongoing conflict in Iran is placing millions of Afghan refugees at increasing risk of persecution, forced deportation, exploitation and humanitarian catastrophe.

Iran hosts one of the world’s largest Afghan refugee populations, with an estimated six million Afghans, many undocumented and without formal protection.

Since U.S. and Israeli airstrikes began on 28 February, conditions have rapidly deteriorated. Thousands of Afghans have begun fleeing toward Afghanistan through the Islam Qala border crossing, describing panic, fuel shortages and crowds mobbing food markets in Iranian cities. Iranian media report over 1,300 casualties, though the figures remain unverified.

For most Afghans, however, leaving is not a realistic option. Over 3.8 million Afghans were estimated to be living in Iran in early 2025, and hundreds of thousands remain trapped in Tehran’s poorest southern and eastern districts, where ageing apartment blocks sit close to industrial and military zones now under bombardment. Eyewitnesses report that since the first raids food has disappeared from markets, electricity and water are cut for hours at a time, and prices for basic goods have doubled.

A statement released by Association officials has warned that the conflict could accelerate an already escalating pattern of deportations. More than one million Afghans were forcibly returned from Iran in 2025, while heightened economic pressure and security concerns forced over 1.5 million Afghans back in the same year, compressing years of structural marginalisation into days of survival.  It said: “Mass returns risk deepening Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, where millions already face hunger, unemployment and lack of shelter.”

It continued; “A parallel crisis is unfolding in Pakistan, which hosts around three million Afghan refugees. Islamabad has accelerated deportations of undocumented Afghans and those with expired temporary permits, saying it can no longer cope. Kabul, already overwhelmed, is struggling to absorb the returnees, more than two-thirds of whom have never lived in Afghanistan, while humanitarian budgets strained by donor cuts and U.S. aid freezes leave many with few options beyond attempting the dangerous journey toward Europe.”

The crisis has particularly severe consequences for Afghan women living alone in Iran, many of whom are reported to have left Afghanistan specifically to pursue the education denied to them under Taliban rule.   The ACAA said that the war and internet shutdowns have “…undermined the very purpose of their migration, cutting off access to online learning and international educational programmes that once offered a lifeline.”

The conflict has also resulted in civilian casualties among Afghan communities. Dozens of Afghans have reportedly been killed under rubble or by shrapnel, but many bodies remain unclaimed because relatives fear arrest or deportation if they approach hospitals.

The crisis highlights the vulnerability of a community already living at the margins of Iranian society.  Afghans have migrated to Iran in waves since the Soviet invasion of the 1980s, the Taliban’s rise in the 1990s, the U.S.-led war in the 2000s, and again after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, seeking education, employment, medical care or a route toward Europe.

Fear of deportation is also preventing refugees from accessing healthcare.

Gul Naz Faiq, a 30-year-old Afghan nurse working at a clinic in northern Tehran, said that undocumented refugees have largely stopped seeking treatment and that injuries from shelling often go untreated because patients fear identification by authorities: “I feel like we are just ghosts moving between crumbling buildings, trying to survive despite everything,” she said. “The children are growing up in an environment full of fear and rubble. They do not know what normal life or play looks like.”

Anxiety, depression and symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder were already reportedly widespread among Afghan communities, but children who once witnessed police raids are now experiencing daily explosions and smoke rising across the city.

Livelihoods have also collapsed under wartime conditions. Fazlullah Haidari, a 42-year-old carpenter in northeast Tehran, said the workshop where he works repeatedly closes as supply chains break down. “Sometimes I give everything I have to buy food while I watch the children suffer from hunger and fear,” he said.

Kamila Sadiq, a 25-year-old house cleaner who supports her mother and siblings, says even reaching employers has become dangerous: “Every day we live feels like facing death and poverty at the same time.”

Afghan migrants already occupy the lowest rung of Iran’s labour market, concentrated in construction, transport, street vending and domestic work, while internet blackouts now sever many from informal jobs, education and contact with relatives abroad.

Even before the airstrikes, Afghan refugees are reported to have faced systemic exclusion. Many reported being barred from subsidised bread through a government smart-card system that excludes non-Iranians, while hospitals treated undocumented migrants only for cash at inflated prices and schools often refused Afghan children or charged prohibitive fees. Economic strain from international sanctions and oil price pressures had already destabilised Iran’s economy, disproportionately affecting migrants with no safety net.

Rahmatullah Shafaq, a 35-year-old street vendor in eastern Tehran, said markets now close suddenly and roads are blocked with rubble. He feeds his wife and three children while sharing a single room with another family: “Getting food has become a gruelling task. Water and electricity cut out constantly.”

Housing conditions are understood to be compounding the crisis. Although Iran hosts the world’s largest Afghan diaspora, only a small minority live in the country’s 20 state-managed settlements; most reside in urban districts such as Shoush, Nazi Abad, Rey, Shour Abad and Baqershahr, where ageing apartment blocks line narrow streets. Flats often house three or four families, sharing kitchens and a single bathroom that may serve 40 or 50 people.

Young unmarried men sleep in shifts on carpets in cramped rooms. Some Afghan tenants say brokers inflate rents or demand payments in exchange for not reporting them to authorities.

Asadullah Rahimi Ali, a 34-year-old taxi driver in eastern Tehran, shares a flat with three other families. “We divide the room into small spaces for sleeping and eating with old curtains.”  The buildings were already unsafe before the strikes, with leaking walls, cracked ceilings and frequent power outages; now, explosions shake structures and send residents fleeing to basements or corridors that offer little protection.

Afghan refugees also face rising suspicion. During the 12-day Iran–Israel war in 2025, Iranian authorities accused Afghans of acting as Israeli agents, accusations that preceded mass deportations. Residents say the same climate of scapegoating has returned, making refugees reluctant to approach government institutions or shelters.

The ACAA said that those who previously worked with NATO forces, international organisations or Western institutions in Afghanistan may face particular risk of harassment or targeting, but that the conflict also heightens the risk of exploitation and coercion.  It said that, historically, Afghan refugees in Iran have sometimes been pressured to join armed groups in exchange for legal status or financial support, and undocumented migrants are especially vulnerable during wartime economic hardship, and that many Afghan refugees now find themselves trapped between two crises: a regional war in Iran and a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, where returning offers little safety or opportunity.

Darius Nasimi, Head of Funding and Partnerships at the Afghanistan & Central Asian Association (ACAA), said: “Afghan refugees in Iran are once again becoming the forgotten victims of geopolitical conflict. These families fled war and instability in Afghanistan only to find themselves trapped in another crisis. The international community must ensure that Afghan refugees are not scapegoated, forcibly deported, or coerced into participating in armed conflict. Protection for refugees must remain a humanitarian priority regardless of the political situation.”

ACAA calls on the international community to:

• Monitor the treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran and prevent collective punishment or discrimination
• Urgently support humanitarian assistance for Afghans forced to return to Afghanistan
• Expand refugee protection and resettlement pathways for vulnerable Afghans
• Ensure refugees are not exploited or forced into military activities during the conflict

It also said that Afghan refugees “…must not become the scapegoats of a regional war they did not create.”